Question 1: How has the pandemic impacted your sector and more particularly you and your job so far?
Steffen Rabe, a booker with FKP Scorpio, who lives in Germany and has worked with Amanda Palmer, Pond and Gov’t Mule: “It’s all about postponing--show by show (tour by tour) unfortunately. One of my tours I actually had to postpone for the fifth time. We can’t estimate the best touring period in future, so I am concentrating now on 2022. If an agent is focusing on a European tour, it is much more difficult because of the different situation in each country.”
Rémi Bruggmann, a booker and artistic coordinator with the Montreux Jazz Festival, who lives in Switzerland: “Our festival has been cancelled and most of the staff has been put on furlough, so that’s the direct impact we’ve experienced quite rapidly after the pandemic hit. We’re all working from home, which I personally enjoy.”
Zöé Caldwell, an agent who lives in Australia and has worked with the Blue Man Group and Cirque du Soleil: “As a sector within the arts sector--international touring theatre/live entertainment--we have been hit pretty bad with the closure of all global borders throughout 2020 and now into 2021. I was working on the Cirque du Soleil touring show ‘Volta’ in the US at the time the pandemic first hit in March 2020 and we had to completely shut down operations. I locked myself in my hotel room with two colleagues for a week to coordinate sending 125 people home--most performers and staff are still waiting and hoping that they will be able to tour again soon.”
Natasha Gregory, an agent with Mother Artists, who lives in the UK and has represented Amy Macdonald, IDLES, RY X, Tom Misch and Foster the People: “The pandemic has affected our live industry sector catastrophically. One of the first industries to close and will be the last to open. So many people have and are being affected. I have taken a tough situation and turned it into a positive by running the live agency and my own roster alongside my brother Mark, who is running the management side of Mother Artists and his own roster. I feel that it's something I can keep control over with a priority of protecting my clients whilst we navigate these tough times.”
Clotaire Buche, an agent with Junzi, who lives in France and has worked with Woodkid, Aaron and Chassol: “Yes, it is very hard financially and mentally. When we lose complete visibility, we become hopeless.”
Dany Hassenstein, a booker with the Paléo Festival Nyon, who lives in Switzerland: “What can I say, we are just about to cancel our event for the second year! It is unreal, we all work very hard to make sure we take the right decisions and it results in cancelling the event.”
Josh Javor, an agent with X-ray Touring, who lives in the UK and has worked with Queens of the Stone Age, Coldplay, Snow Patrol and Eagles of Death Metal: “Killed it.”
Rahel Feidler, a production manager with Showtime Entertainment Services, who lives in Belgium and has worked with Rock Werchter, Rock-A-Field, Rammstein (Lux), Tomorrowland and Jean Michel Jarre: “I am working as freelance stage and production manager. Together with my partner Filip, a specialist in rigging and stagebuilding, we run a little limited company called Showtime Entertainment Services. We are mainly active in big events (festivals, stadium and arena tours, concerts, big B2B and B2C events). In February 2020, during our ski holiday in Austria, we got the first signs that something was happening: the Geneva Motor show, which was at that point in full load in and for whom Filip had just done several weeks of rigging, suddenly got cancelled. Hoping that this would be an isolated case, we left for a week of work to Saudi Arabia, where the Azimuth Festival was happening. Already at the airport things started to get complicated: Saudi Arabia had just closed its borders for all private incoming travels. As we were travelling with a working visa, we were still allowed to enter the country, but the anxiousness feeling grew. After a week in the desert, when coming back to Belgium, everybody at the airport was already wearing a mask, and we were stared at because we still did not believe this corona thing was such a danger. Just a few days later, Belgium went into their first full lockdown. Every event job still in our agendas got first postponed to a later moment, then finally cancelled as the situation appeared to be lasting longer than what everybody expected. Until now, there is no real perspective when festivals and bigger events will be opening up again.”
Björn Harder, a tour and stage manager with Try Harder Productions, who lives in Germany and has worked with Rammstein and Apocalyptica: “My company has had no business since last year.”
Dick Meredith, a freelance tour manager, who lives in the UK and has worked with Bastille: “My sector disappeared overnight. I need crowds and travel, the main two things that the pandemic prohibited. Apart from a couple of webstreams, I have had no work in my usual roles at all since March. I have been delivering groceries to help make ends meet.”
Jan Smeets, an agent and booker for Live Nation Belgium and Rock Werchter, who has also worked with Passenger and lives in Belgium: “The Belgian live sector is hit hard by the pandemic since the first lockdown in Belgium mid-March 2020. As a booker for Live Nation Belgium, I’ve been rescheduling tours for the fourth time since, at first into 2021, and now well into 2022.”
Luke Bell, a freelance tour manager, who lives in the UK: “Well, it’s been a disaster! I work as the production coordinator for Florence and the Machine and the Red Hot Chili Peppers normally, and as the tour manager for Machine Head and other metal bands when I am not working for my main two acts. So in either role, there is no avoiding the fact that it has been a crushingly tough time since March of 2020. Absolutely no work whatsoever, completely understandably, but it has still been an extremely disappointing time work wise.”
Silvio König, a tour manager and production manager with Thirteen Fourteen Productions, who lives in Germany and has worked with Paul Kalkbrenner and Kraftwerk: “Totally, everything and everyone got stopped! No shows, no events, just the streaming things. But this is not real!”
Ton Maessen, a freelance tour manager, who lives in Portugal and has worked with Nick Cave and dEUS: “As an international tour manager doing arena type venues, the business stopped in March 2020.”
Alex Bruford, an agent with ATC Live, who lives in the UK and has worked with Nick Cave, The Lumineers, Metronomy and Fink: “The pandemic has had a devastating effect on the live music industry. ATC Live is a live touring agency whose primary income comes when artists play shows, and there have been no shows since March last year, which equates to nearly a year of close to zero income.”
Silke Westera, a booker with FKP Scorpio, who lives in Germany and has worked with Tom Odell and Tom Walker: “I work as a tour promoter for a concert agency in Germany which is promoting mainly tours for international artists, as well as local events and a variety of festivals all over the country. Due to our focus on non-domestic artists, we basically had to cancel the majority of shows and to this point all of our festivals since the pandemic started. Our business has been reduced by 92.5% in the last year. I am, like most of my colleagues, on short-time work. For one year now my main work is moving tours from one period to the next, trying to predict the point where we finally are able to promote shows again.”
Dirk “Bats” Dillen, an electrician with Powershop, who lives in Belgium and has worked with Rock Werchter, Rock-A-Field and Rammstein (Lux): “I work as a freelance electrician and generator technician in the festival world, there is much less work in this industry at the moment.”
Danny Simons, an agent with Grand Hotel van Cleef Musik, who lives in Germany and has worked with Thees Uhlmann and Kettcar: “As a booking agent, I had to change plans and adapt everything to a new scenario... well this is challenging and it sucks... but sometimes it’s also inspiring, rethinking, earthing and building something new!”