Call to action for those in live event supply chain

SSE Audio has announced 50 job losses as the live events industry prepares for mass gatherings tomorrow, 11 August, to sound a ‘red alert’ about the crisis it faces amid ongoing uncertainty about when large scale events can return.

John Penn, who started SSE Audio in 1976 with his wife, said: “The furlough scheme has been great, but it now needs targeting where it’s still needed. As furlough stops, so redundancies are being announced right across the industry. We will have no choice but to cut our costs further to conserve the funds we have left to enable us to keep afloat, until we can safely return to work, sometime next year.” He added: “We’ve got a great future. The problem is, I can’t see how we’re going to get to the future. That’s the issue - how we get from now to then.” SSE Audio is supporting the events industry’s day of action on Tuesday, which is taking place in London with smaller events in cities around the UK. It follows a ‘red alert’ issued at the end of July, pointing out that the Government’s £1.57bn arts rescue package overlooks many in the industry’s supply chain, and urging all those within it to join the campaign by posting on social media and writing letters to government, as well as attending mass outdoor activities on 11 August.