News

Last night from 9 p.m. to midnight the W. Carroll Coyne Center for the Performing Arts was illuminated in red as the College took part in a nationwide effort to raise public awareness to the plight of live event workers due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The PAC was one of approximately 1,500 entertainment venues in 50 cities that was lit up in red as an urgent beacon to underscore the industry-wide distress. The campaign was organized by WeMakeEvents, a coalition of trade bodies, businesses, unions, and live events workers.

According to WeMakeEvents, the live event industry in North America directly employs approximately 12 million people and includes hundreds of thousands of businesses with a combined economic impact of $1 trillion. However, in March of this year, the industry began a complete shutdown. Since that time, thousands of events have been cancelled, thousands of venues have been forced to shut their doors permanently, and: 

●      77% of people in the live events industry have lost 100% of their income

●      96% of companies have cut staff

●      97% of 1099 workers have lost their jobs

The PAC was the only location in the Syracuse area to participate in Red Alert. Watch a story on Channel 9 about the College’s involvement.

The campaign’s goal  is to raise public awareness and to implore the U.S. government to offer industry relief by passing pending Congressional  legislation for small businesses, known as the RESTART Act (S. 3814 & H.R. 7481), and to support millions of unemployed workers by requesting extension and expansion of Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) and  Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC), providing an additional $600 per week to those on unemployment and access to unemployment insurance (UI) benefits for those generally ineligible, such as 1099 workers. You can send a letter to Congress on the WeMakeEvents website urging them to take action.