CLEVELAND — Buildings and venues across Cleveland were lit up in red Tuesday night to raise awareness about the devastation COVID-19 has brought to the live event and entertainment industry.
The lights were part of the #RedAlertRESTART initiative from We Make Events, a coalition that includes many businesses and workers in the entertainment industry.
COVID-19 has affected not just venues and performers, but millions of other workers. We Make Events said 95% of live events have been canceled due to COVID-19, with many people losing wages or their jobs and more than three-quarters of people in the industry losing all their income.
"This shutdown has been hard on everybody," said Greg Harris, president and CEO of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. "Make no mistake about it, every single sector has felt it. The live music industry, venues, performing arts places, they have really felt it."
With so many canceled events and layoffs, Harris said the Rock Hall wanted to join with all those that work in the industry to build awareness that it's a "vital sector," bringing in billions of dollars to Ohio and $1 trillion nationwide.
"In this industry, if there's no live shows, there's no tickets, there's no stagehands, there's no talent, there's no ushers," Harris said. "The whole infrastructure is dependent on people going to shows, so they're really in a precarious spot."
While the Rock Hall is "fortunate" to remain open in a limited capacity, albeit with greatly reduced numbers, and isn't dependent on live shows, Harris said it does do a lot of live shows and wanted to join with the rest of the industry to support them during a time when many of them have no revenue at all.
In addition to big venues, Harris also highlighted the need to support smaller venues, such as the Beachland Ballroom and The Happy Dog, and for Northeast Ohio's sound and lighting companies, in addition to industries like restaurants and bars that rely on events to make some of their money.
Harris said people can help by raising awareness of the relief the live events industry needs, including writing letters to elected officials. He said people can also "actively participate in online viewing of shows" to help artists, performers, and musicians, as well as attend shows in person when possible, with limited capacities and restrictions in place.
"Many think of the sector for the great experiences it gives, the life-affirming sense of performances and of music and rock-and-roll," Harris said. "It's also job creation. For every single job in this sector, they're the same people that are buying houses, paying for gas, going to restaurants, and patronizing things. So we're sort of all in this together, and that would be just a massive loss culturally, but [also] a massive loss economically."
From comedians to stage managers, those who work in the industry are having a difficult time.
Mary Santora is a road comedian, so she travels all over the country for gigs. But that hasn't been possible during the pandemic.
"It went from, you know, six nights a week, traveling every other weekend to gone, absolutely nothing," Santora said.
Santora said she still has supplemental income from work she does in radio, but that comedy is her main source of income.
"It’s devastating, you know, for a lot of people, where your way of life got completely flipped on its head," Santora said. "And so everything that you’re used to is now completely different. It’s been definitely an adjustment and learning how to realign and just kind of go with the flow and take things one day at a time."
She described the impact on the entertainment industry, from bartenders, servers, and owners to performers, as "immeasurable."
"From the top to the bottom, everybody lost their main source of income, or even if it is just a supplemental income, it’s one of those things that you don’t really think about," Santora said. "Because if you’re not in that industry, to you it’s just a night out that you might do once a month. But to someone like us, where it’s like, 'Oh no, that’s everything, my entire livelihood is now gone."
She urged people to see it from someone else's perspective and to keep safety precautions at the forefront when they are out in public.
"If everybody does what they’re supposed to do, then we can kind of get things reopened, even if it is at maybe a slower pace," Santora said. "You can get these people back to work and helping their families once again."
Larry Dolin has been hiring crews and stage managing for 45 years. He works with nearly a dozen companies. He described the last several months as "lousy" and "miserable" and said he wants to go back to work.
"The people that I work with, absolutely they’re nervous," Dolin said. "This is our first pandemic, and we don’t know what’s going to happen or where it’s gonna go."
He added, "Scary situation all the way around, all over the country."
Dolin said the public is "in it as much as we are" since they want to be able to go to baseball games, concerts, and theaters. However, he said, the virus has to be controlled because "the virus controls everything."
"I was the most proud of the fact that I made money for people and put them to work and gave them a living," Dolin said. "And I feel bad for them. I can’t do that anymore."
Bill Squire is a comedian who also works as a talk show radio host. He said he is lucky to have his radio job still, but that he lost a lot of his supplemental income from doing gigs and running shows.
"I have a lot of friends that are out on the road," Squire said. "They lost all their income and so I see the struggles that they’re going through and it just breaks my heart."
He said the effects of COVID-19 have been "absolutely devastating" to the live events industry.
"It is so important to have those events because there’s people that go to the bars before and there’s a whole life that goes around the performances," Squire said. "So you have the bartenders, you have the servers, you have all the different people that work in the industry, and then you have the performers as well."
A lot of those performers, Squire said, live paycheck to paycheck.
"It’s a lot of feast and famine in this business, and this famine has been longer than most people have ever dealt with," Squire said.
He agreed with the need to find ways to do things safely, with reduced capacities, masking, plexiglass barriers, and protocols to keep people safe.
"I think, for the time being, that’s what you’re going to see. Reduced capacity and protocols in place to keep people safe, to slow the spread, but still help get money flowing," Squire said.
As for whether comedians want to include COVID-19 in their acts, Santora said she's choosing not to.
"For me personally, I’m like, 'Let’s leave it alone. This is what people are seeing 24/7,'" Santora said. "You know what, I’d rather talk about how my cat is being a real idiot. You know, just something stupid and lighthearted, because if people are coming out to, say, a comedy show, that’s 90 minutes where I’d want you to kind of forget about what’s going on, where you’re coming out to have a good time so let’s have a good time. You can worry about the news and the headlines later."
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