SIGN NOW: 272,000+ Sign Petition Demanding Financial Aid For US Concerts and Events Industry

UPDATE 2: A petition calling on the US government to come to the aid of the concert and events industry struggling from the ongoing fallout of thousands of canceled shows during the coronavirus crisis.

The petition, which was posted on Change.org by Digerati Productions’ Isaac Rothwell, has more than 2272,000 signatures as of Thursday morning.

A similar petition aimed at the Canadian government has more than 4900 signatures.

“The purpose of this petition is to sound the alarm on a massive economic catastrophe that is transpiring in our nation.”

“Currently, the live events and business meetings industry is in free fall and headed toward a complete collapse with no end in sight,” the petition continues. “There are already strong ripples of this impact to the transportation and hospitality industry (hotels, conference centers, restaurants etc.) that rely on our industry which have received media and governmental attention, but no mention of the larger losses that are reaching into the billions and billions of dollars, and continuing to climb by the minute, in the live events and business meetings industry.”

“While the fear is dire for our industry, the economic fallout from our collapse can potentially dwarf that of the 2008 recession and mortgage market collapse.  We are an industry almost 2.5 times the size of GM with total yearly revenues of in excess of $337 Billion in 2016 compared to
$125 Billion for GM in 2019.”

Proposed Live Event Aid Package

The aid package, according to the petition, should include:

• Emergency Medicaid Health insurance – to cover our uninsured business owners,  contractors and laid off employees
• An additional $200 Billion in low interest federally backed business liquidity loans – the initial $50 Bill has already been surpassed in current sustained losses just to our industry.
• $100 Billion in Employee Retention Grants – these types of grants are being offered in New York City, currently the low interest loans and differed payroll tax are not able to avoid widespread layoffs. as a service based economy of live events and business meetings cannot sustain taking on the level of debt to support employees without any ability to perform revenue generating activities during this time of a large gathering shutdown.

SIGN THE PETITION HERE