Features
#lauterwerden: German Musicians Play For Crews
Axel Heimken/picture alliance via Getty Images – Joy Denalane.
The German soul singer is going to perform at #lauterwerden.
The crews form the backbone of this industry, and they’re also among those hit hardest by the employment bans imposed by government’s around the world in reaction to Covid.
Live Nation is well aware of this, of course, which is why the company launched the so-called Crew Nation relief fund back in March.
As part of these efforts, Live Nation GSA is organizing a concert livestream in Germany with some of the country’s most famous artists to raise money for the crews, many of whom have lost their jobs from one day to the next.
They include technicians, roadies, stage builders, caterers, security personnel, bus- and truck drivers, in short, those who make concerts possible and have suffered immensely in the past half year.
As German rock veteran Peter Maffay, one of the artists taking part in the concert, put it: “Without the many helpers, we can’t go about our business either. That is why it is now important to stick together, support one another and give hope. Together we show: nobody has to go through this alone.”
Maffay was in the middle of his anniversary tour, celebrating 50 years on stage, when the government mandates made a continuation impossible. The last show reported to Pollstar boxoffice at Berlin’s Mercedes-Benz Arena, Feb. 29, almost sold out. 13,241 sold tickets grossed $1.1 million.
Frank Molter/picture alliance via Getty Images – Peter Maffay (left) and Johannes Oerding during Maffay’s anniversary tour opening.
Both men are going to perform at Live Nation GSA’s charity concert for crews.
Live Nation GSA’s charity concert runs under the hashtag #lauterwerden, which can be translated as “turn up the volume” or “speak louder”. Aside from Maffay, Adel Tawil, Die Fantastischen Vier, Fritz Kalkbrenner, Johannes Oerding, Joy Denalane, Milky Chance, Rea Garvey, and The BossHoss confirmed their participation, with more acts to be confirmed.
They all agreed to perform without pay. Fans watching the livestream can make donations during the event to support those working behind the scenes.
Live Nation is currently in the process of founding a non-profit association for the purpose of collecting and distributing the proceeds to solo self-employed people in the industry who are in financial distress.
Further support for the event comes via “Ohne Kunst und Kultur Wird’s Still” (“Without art and culture everything goes quiet”), an initiative promoting awareness of arts and culture-sector workers affected by the pandemic.
The livestream is realized with and broadcast via MagentaMusik 360 and on the MagentaTV programme #TAKEPART, which are both products of German telco giant Telekom.
Artists perform on Telekom’s mixed reality stage, first utilized for Wacken Open Air’s first livestream event, Wacken World Wide.
“All of us live music fans have our concert tickets pinned to the fridge by a magnet and are just waiting for it to get going. Meanwhile, a lot of the service providers that produce these shows are falling on hard times as a result of the pandemic,” said Smudo of Die Fantastischen Vier, adding,
“Let’s get together and support those affected with this event, in the hope that we can soon take those tickets off the fridge and go out and have a good time again.”