Promoters plan route for music biz revival AN alliance of Australia music promoters has pitched a “COVID-safe road map” to the Federal Government for international tours to resume in February 2021.
Promoter Andrew McManus , who has toured Fleetwood Mac, Luciano Pavarotti and Guns N’ Roses, has teamed with Geoff Jones of TEG Live to ask authorities to use the Under The Southern Stars Festival, with international headliners Stone Temple Pilots, Bush and Live, as a “test case” for future live music events.
Mr McManus and Mr Jones are lobbying Prime Minster Scott Morrison, Health Minister Greg Hunt and Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton to support their “Australian live music and music festival COVID-safe plan” .
The promoters said the plan will “light the way for our colleagues, allowing them to follow suit with clear guidelines to follow at their future events and festivals” .
If the plan is adopted, it would be the first tour of international artists since coronavirus restrictions.
Australian Live Music and Festival COVID-Safe Plan
The plan includes:
- The three acts travelling with essential band members only, and two support staff, and being COVID-19 tested before leaving Los Angeles and again on arrival in Australia;
- THE bands being quarantined at a compound, with a rehearsal studio, for 14 days;
- HIRING Australian tour staff and crew to replace the band’s usual tour team;
- SEGREGATED sections on flights, “military style” transfers between Australian cities and locked hotel floors for the bands and crew;
- PUNTERS must download the government’s COVID-Safe app to attend the show;
- TEMPERATURE checks and strict social distancing measures at the gig; and
- CROWDS to be capped at 70 per cent of total capacity.
Mr McManus said: “We want to be part of the solution, not part of the COVID problem . We want to work with governments at all levels — federal, state and local — and formulate a plan that can get our industry off its knees.
“There needs to be a road map made, and we feel we can be a flag point for the industry to reopen its doors.”
The pair said if the festival became a “test case,” they would share the road map “at no cost, to operate all future festivals in this country” .
Under The Southern Stars dates include Hastings Foreshore Reserve on February 20, the Yarrawonga Showgrounds a day later, and The Timber Yard in Port Melbourne, on March 3. The line-up will also visit other states.
Source
This article by NUI TE KOHA is from the July 4, 2020 issue of The Herald Sun Digital Edition.
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