Music industry workers urge gov't to save dying performing arts industry amid pandemic
Members of the Korea Association of Music Venues hold placards asking the government to revise “unrealistic” social distancing measures on their businesses at Rolling Hall near Hongik University in western Seoul, Monday. Courtesy of Korea Association of Music Venues
By Park Ji-won
Times have been tough for everyone since the outbreak of COVID-19 last year, but professionals in the country's small live music community have been experiencing especially severe financial difficulties.
After cancellations of performances and bankruptcies of concert venues over the last year, groups of music industry workers have urged the government to come up with “realistic” measures to tackle their financial difficulties, and asked for more government support
A group whose name translates to Emergency Committee for the Normalization of Live Music consisting of hundreds of CEOs of indie music labels, production companies and various other workers released a statement Tuesday urging the government to revise social distancing measures in order to allow small venues to hold live events for audiences and to stop marginalizing the live music community.
“We did our best to cooperate with the government and have endured. But as long as the Level 2.5 social distancing rule remains, we cannot survive anymore … Many production companies and concert venues have closed in the Hongdae area. If there are no opportunities in the ongoing situation, more companies will go bankrupt,” the committee said in a statement.
Stressing that there were no known cases of infections spreading at concerts last year, it urged the government to ease its social distancing measures and get rid of unfavorable rules applied “unfairly” to small venues that offer standing room only instead of assigned seats. It asked the administration to let the small venues welcome more paying customers than now. It also said holding performances online as an alternative is only beneficial for a very small group of people, thus not a suitable long-term replacement.
The remarks came after famous music venues such as Evans Lounge, DGBD and V-Hall, located near Hongik University in western Seoul, also known as Hongdae, have one after another gone out of business recently due to the COVID-19 pandemic. For some time now, the government has implemented level 2.5 social distancing measures which forces theaters and live music venues to leave two seats empty for every occupied seat until Jan. 31.
The Korea Association of Music Venues also said in a statement Monday: “Due to the prolonged pandemic, small private venues are at risk. Events continue to be canceled, postponed and canceled again. We cannot organize shows because of the constantly changing social distancing measures. More venues have shut down. Following that, staff in various areas such as stage, sound and lighting are suffering financial difficulties.”
It said unlike other industries holding virtual events, it is impossible for live music venues to hold shows without a certain number of paying customers. “There are almost no measures for live music or reflecting the nature of the industry.”