A few days ago, it was announced that the EDC, the music festival that leaves the most money in Mexico, will be postponed until September because there is no time when the epidemiological fire changes in Mexico City, which, without a doubt, is already one of the global red flags of the pandemic.
The bad news isn’t just about OCESA, Latin America’s largest live entertainment and entertainment company. The music industry involves a much larger chain of labor, from technicians who set up the stage to those who sell beers to the public.
In fact, OCESA was quite optimistic in predicting that massive events could already take place on September 3, 4 and 5. At the rate of vaccination that we are going, I doubt that this year the shows will return to normal. Let us take into account that these electronic music festivals are attended by young people between the ages of 18 and 30: precisely the last segment of the population that can receive the vaccine.
I am the first to believe that the creative industries must be reactivated as soon as possible, but not at the cost of the lives of thousands of people. No. I insist and will always insist as long as the pandemic lasts: the government must give support to companies that are completely shut down. This can take the form of tax breaks, fair credits, loans or economic stimuli. The point is, the industry survives until this crisis is over. The government of Mexico would not have to authorize massive events this year: it would be a huge risk to the population.
Many factors suggest a complex situation for the future of the music industry: the low purchasing power of the middle class due to unemployment, the lack of acceptance of virtual shows at cost, the fear of contagion when the declaration of the green light and the losses that have dragged on for nearly a year in this company worth approximately $ 26 billion worldwide, according to a recent Statisa report.
In the United Kingdom, alarms have already been raised and the claims of artists like Sting or Paul McCartney have borne fruit: the government has intervened and encouraged small, medium and large companies in this area. It is obviously not a question of saving the former Beatle (whose wallet is surely enough to buy all the hospitals in England), but to prevent the sinking of hundreds of thousands of workers who depend on this company.
It wasn’t until the first quarter of 2020 that the Inter-American Entertainment Society (CIE) – operator of OCESA – didn’t have a good time. Its operating cash flow is down 18% compared to the same period of the previous year. Consulting firm Pollstar estimates that Alejandro Soberón’s company sells more than four million tickets to live shows a year. Today, their losses are estimated to be over 65%.
The situation is critical and mass entertainment will be the last to return. Head of government Claudio Sheinbaum cared little about the organization of Vive Latino 2020 when there were already confirmed cases in Mexico City. Hopefully this year you know that there are not “a few confirmed cases”, but hundreds of thousands.
–