A BOLTON-based entertainment company turned the town red as part of a national campaign to highlight the threat Covid-19 is posing to live shows.
Kathryn O’Donnell of Smithills-based GravityLive Productions and performer Mark Vernon donned huge winged costumes full of LED lights outside the Albert Halls as part of the Light It Red campaign while Mikey O’Donnell created a special fire effect.
In the past 15 years, Mikey and Kathryn have seen GravityLive grow to become one of the country’s most in-demand production companies staging major corporate events all over the country and sharing stages with major artists such as Katy Perry, Taylor Swift and Hugh Jackman.
The company has also performed for the Royal Family of Abu Dhabi and at the Royal Variety performance.
At the start of the year GravityLive was looking at its busiest year yet, with a full diary of events booked until the new year.
But all that stopped when the country was plunged into lockdown.
“Everything pretty much stopped overnight,” said Mikey. “We were fortunate to get a £10,000 grant which helped cover costs for a while but we are now at the stage of having to dip into savings.
“All our performers and technicians are self employed and like the rest of the arts and entertainment industry everyone is struggling.
"Our industry has been devastated - our business included, with no foreseeable return to work.
"We have gone from estimated turnover in the hundreds of thousands to zero in a matter of months. This leaves us with no income whatsoever to support ourselves and young family or our performers and their families.
"The worst thing is the uncertainty, we have no idea when we will be able go back to work, if there is any industry to go back to. Having built our business up over the last 15 years with hard work and long hours, to see this in jeopardy is heart breaking.
“We are a creative industry, we are used to solving problems. We will keep working on it but we haven’t been able to work out a long term solution to this problem yet.
"We just wanted to take part in Light it Red to make people aware of the impact Covid-19 has had on our industry.
"Our industry since March has collapsed and every person in our industry is desperate for guidance and help. Much spotlight has been shone on the plight of theatres and other large venues – rightly so; but our sector of the industry has been left in the dark. We have effectively been banned from working due to the social distancing requirements."
Mikey and Kathryn have looked at developing virtual events and have also created a custom platform for teaching classes online – www.gravitystream.co.uk – in a bid to help many of the self-employed dancers and performers who would normally work with GravityLive to keep teaching during lockdown and continue earning.
Mikey had a stark assessment of the current situation.
"With no word of a timetable, guidelines or help from the government many businesses like ours will not survive the year," he said.
The Christmas period is normally GravityLive's busiest time of the year and helps provide income to cover the quieter months in January and February.
"This isn’t going to happen this year for us and many performers this period is always a struggle but now it’s a serious worry," he said.
"We are supporting the movement WeMakeEvents – RedAlert to help shine a light on our industry's plight.
"We are asking for grants not loans, an extension to the self-employed scheme until we have an industry to go back to."
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