As COVID-19 problems bloom, performing arts world fears major hit
11 March, 2020
COVID-19 angst has the world washing its hands with newfound vigour - however the performing arts world wringing them, as directives to scrap mass events threaten the entertainment world with monetary chaos.
Days gone by week has seen main events including Miami's Ultra electronic dance music fest and Austin's famed South By Southwest culture and tech 10-day time event cancelled, and the spring's premier Coachella festival postponed until October.
Pearl Jam, Madonna and Santana are among the A-list performers who've dropped or postponed concert dates in the home and abroad more than virus fears, with great arts venues just like the Boston Symphony Orchestra and New York's American Ballet Theater also cancelling tours found in Asia and the center East.
Elvan Sahin, a 32-year-older Manhattan resident, decided against going to a good classical music concert this week at New York's Lincoln Center over the coronavirus, saying: "I believe I'm going to become more comfortable sitting this out."
"I'm used to tuning out the hype and exaggeration around hurricanes and snowstorms, but this whole contagious virus point is new to me personally," she told AFP.
"I understand I sound crazy - but I'm not handling it incredibly calmly."
"ALREADY ON FIRE"
Kevin Lyman, founder of the Warped Tour - a traveling rock tour that ran from 1995-2019 - explained the last time this individual witnessed such entertainment industry chaos was post-September 11.
Amid that shock, he recalls the 1st response was "to keep carefully the show going".
"Not to mention it didn't," he told AFP. "The music organization shut down for some time."
But Lyman called the current coronavirus panic "unprecedented".
Adam Siegel, the entertainment supervisor at American Agents & Brokers - an insurance provider whose clientele include Ultra - said that massive happenings like Coachella might have four to five different plans.
Terrorism insurance offers been commonplace since 9/11, and several American events now buy dynamic shooter insurance, he said - however the average contract does not have a good clause for communicable disease threats.
Now it's too past due: "You can't receive insurance over a building if it is already on fire."
"If they have an insurance plan that will respond, generally we need a federal government entity of some kind to pull the plug," Siegel explained.
That requirement is likely why California's Coachella festival - which has been sold-out for weeks, and expects 125,000 fans daily over the two April weekends - waited until Riverside County declared a general public health crisis, and ordered the rescheduling.
"UNCHARTED TERRITORY"
A good mandate from Riverside County - the municipal authority where in fact the desert music event occurs - to cancel or approach the display would trigger any protective insurance policy promoters have, Siegel said.
It might also allow happenings to exercise a "force majeure" clause in functionality agreements, which waive financial liability between promoters and artists in the case of extreme, unpredictable emergencies.
Coachella nets between US$75 million and US$100 million in gains each year, in line with the LA Times.
For now, it's just postponed, but in the function of cancellation an insurance payout due to force majeure could hover between US$150 million and US$200 million.
Based on individual contracts, performers would likely keep anything payouts they've already received - but might be out cash already allocated to set production.
Ultimately, "it always is going to get back to what the actual reason behind loss was and if that was a covered peril in your coverage", Siegel said. "It's not black and bright white. It's available to interpretation."
"It's seriously uncharted territory."
"DEVASTATING"
The monetary consequences of pushing back or cancelling important festivals and events reach far beyond promoters and artists, Siegel said.
"There's a lot on the line," he said. "There's far more people that happen to be in this meals chain that are going to be damaged - vendors, crew, local businesses."
"In a gig market, many people who've been booked to work Coachella, for example, could be out a lot of money."
Just under 400,000 people stay in the Coachella Valley, with a human population that skews older - the very people coronavirus may hit hardest.
But it's also a area where tourism reigns: The Palm Springs-area visitors bureau says the US$7 billion-industry helps one in four careers.
Fear in the event circuit reaches concert venues worldwide, Lyman said.
Large entertainment companies like AEG - the parent company of GoldenVoice, which puts over Coachella - or Live Nation will "have a hit", he said, but it is the independent club owners facing major financial threats.
"Those small people that rely upon the weekly organization that don't possess big reserve funds - it may be devastating," he said.
"Every day that goes much longer, it'll reach them to a greater degree."
But as the community reels from cancellations, it seems venues can depend on at least 1 artist to stick it out.
Bob Dylan, 78, on Monday announced a summer season UNITED STATES tour - along with April's schedule that has him using 14 dates found in Japan.
Source: www.channelnewsasia.com