Last night, despite the inclement weather, 333 people who work in the events industry came together, socially distanced at Brighton & Hove seafront for #WeMakeEvents, an international movement to highlight that the live events sector urgently needs support from local governments to survive the Covid-19 crisis.
Organisers from some of Brighton’s major events, including Billy Mauseth from Brighton Music Conference (BMC), Paul Kemp from Brighton & Hove Pride, Julian Caddy from Brighton Fringe and Rory Bett from The Great Escape, along with Madness guitarist Chris Foreman, came together to fight for the industry that means so much to Brighton’s economy.
From Rockwater to live music venue Concorde2, the seafront glowed red hot. The British Airways i360 Viewing Tower featured a dynamic lighting show, with the column projecting rolling messages on the impact to the industry and the supply chain affected. House DJs Darius Syrossian and Alex Fitzgerald played their sets on the pod for later download through BMC.
Lasers and intelligent lights lit up the sky and the Palace Pier, bouncing off the driving rain. At 8pm the peaceful protest saw phones lit up red and a three-minute silence attracting supportive honks from passing cars.
The Brighton event was spearheaded by a core group of local event professionals: Jacqui Partridge and Ian Silcock, Ian Baird founder of EPIC, and John Wallis. The two-hour production involved over 300 volunteers and around 100 companies who donated time and kit from all over the country for the show, including music producer Wax Worx who donated his unreleased track Get up, GO MAD for the Brighton video.
Jacqui Patridge said “It’s incredible how people have come together and pulled out all the stops. Our mission is to educate the public on how serious this is for so many people and to the Government. All we want to do is get back to work, but in that absence, we need help.”
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