With the measures against corona, the capacity of 500 people will be reopened to 60 people, but...

With the measures against corona, the capacity of 500 people will be reopened to 60 people, but ... June 19 4:43

The live house, which has been seriously affected by the new coronavirus, will be able to operate with audiences in Tokyo etc. from 19th, but there is a concern that the number of visitors will continue to be restricted and the impact will be prolonged. There is a loud voice.

Live houses, where you can enjoy live music up close, are called "3 denseness" and have been asked to refrain from going to work or to close their business.

After that, the request for leave will be lifted depending on the local situation, and from 19th, it will be possible to open the business with spectators in Tokyo etc., but as a measure to prevent infection, the distance between spectators is 2 meters to 1 meter, It is necessary to take measures such as keeping the distance between the viewer and the audience by 2 meters.

The live house "Shimokitazawa Garden" in Tokyo can accommodate up to 500 people, but if you take measures to prevent infection, you can only get about 60 people, and even if you can open a business, you will not make a profit.

It is said that the business with the audience can resume at the earliest after the beginning of next month, so for the time being, while limiting the number of people, we will perform multiple performances a day, At the same time, I want to secure a little income and keep the store alive by doing paid distribution online.

Representative Tetsuo Inoue said, “I'm relieved for the time being, but I don't think it will be a sunny restart. Even if I operate according to the preventive measures currently in place, business does not work very well and there are still many issues. Then, I don't think we can do a conventional live in a span of one or two years. We are always looking for what we can do to hold it up."

Behind the staff

The staff behind the scenes, who support the live performance, have been in a difficult situation for a long time because their work has been cut off.

The live industry consists of a wide variety of behind-the-scenes staff such as sound and lighting, stage setup, and equipment transportation, most of which are freelance individuals and small and medium-sized businesses.

Mr. Go Nakano, who runs a company that deals with sound in Tokyo, has been working on about 100 scenes per month such as live houses and music festivals, but since March this event has been canceled one after another 4 It means that the work has been completely cut off since the month, and has lost about 50 million yen in sales so far.

Furthermore, it is said that the organizers of live houses and events say that even if requests for leave are eased, the balance will not be met, and it will not be possible to hold the live immediately.

At Nakano-san's company, two of the 21 staff members left this job for life and moved to another industry.Mr. Nakano said, "I think it's very difficult for the industry as a whole. We can't do anything right now because we work with orders, so I hope we can get back to the same shape as before."

Crowdfunding to support staff

At the Hibiya Music Festival in Tokyo, which was scheduled to be held last month, we have started crowdfunding with the aim of compensating the staff who lost their jobs, in order to support the staff in trouble.

"Hibiya Music Festival" is a free admission music event that was scheduled to be held last month at Hibiya Park in Tokyo, and it was decided that "DREAMS COME TRUE" and composer Joe Hisaishi will appear. , Was discontinued due to the spread of new coronavirus infection.

Since the cancellation caused about 300 staff to lose their jobs, the executive committee of the music festival decided to launch crowdfunding and raise funds for compensation.

We started with the goal of 4 million yen, which can compensate 10,000 yen per person, but we received more support, so we raised the target to 8 million yen and continued calling until this month 22 Has received more than 7.3 million yen.

Seiji Kameda, who is also the music festival executive chairman and himself on the stage as a musician, said, “There is a situation where the same staff are involved in various venues from small live houses to large domes to overseas performances. Since we are working in one team, I think that there is no single staff member who supports that team," he said, saying, "The skills and music that each team has cultivated for decades." It must never cease to exist, and I want to use this as an opportunity to spread the thought of thinking about music culture and connecting it to the future.”