“Save Our Stages”: Live Event workers rally for pandemic relief
By Leyla Said, Sophia Pargas, and Jennifer Hernandez-Ascarrunz
On October 2, live event workers rallied in Boston’s theater district demanding better unemployment benefits in wake of the current COVID-19 pandemic. The rally, organized by Massachusetts Live Events Coalition, allowed those who once worked on and off of the stage to come together to call upon local legislators to better aid them until reopening live events.
Since their jobs revolve around large audiences in small spaces, these employees were among the first to be laid off and said they are suffering accordingly.
Without unemployment benefits, those who were once depended upon to provide a few hours of uninterrupted joy said they are experiencing anything but and instead are suffering financially, mentally, and emotionally. Performers, stage workers, and local crew united to share testimonies of how they have been personally affected by the sudden shutdown in March.
“Financially, everything kind of hit us at once,” food and beverage worker Julie Gibbons said. “We’re in full force and then a phone call told us to just come to a halt, so it was a major shock for us.”
Many, if not all, of the 12 million live event workers across the United States have been unemployed since the pandemic, according to CenterStage Global. Claire Hoey, a banquet manager, spoke about her prolonged job search after being furloughed in late March and officially laid off by late July.
“I’ve filled out tons of job applications but there’s just not a lot out there in our field right now. So it is really tough,” Hoey said.
U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch of Massachusetts, a Democrat, attended the rally to support live event workers as well as speak on the revised Heroes Act which was approved by the House of Representatives on Oct 1.
“We put the bill forward late last night and it’s going to Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell’s desk today. It allows $10 billion in small business administration grants and funding for live venue operators to help the industry adjust to the devastating economic effects from this pandemic on live venues,” Lynch stated.
“We need the Heroes Act passed,” Meghan Young, a senior account executive at High Output, a lighting and technology services firm, said. “In the Heroes Act there’s an expansion for the Federal Pandemic Unemployment [Compensation] and the Paycheck Protection [Program] loans for small businesses,” which allowed her company to initially take their employees off unemployment and bring them back full time.
Once the Paycheck Protection Program loan expired in August, however, furlough employees were laid off. She encourages those outside of the industry to help pass the bill through “just being loud,” specifically on social media, as well as calling and “emailing legislators.”
