If you’re anything like me, you’re missing live music just as much as I am right now. While we long for the time when we can go back to festivals, arenas, and live music venues, we should also examine how we can do better for the live music sector, especially touring musicians and crews that make the music we love happen live.
If the pandemic has shown us anything, it's that spending time with our family and friends and sharing in the live music experience is beneficial for everyone involved. Therefore, we should treat it with the respect that it deserves. Now is the time to ensure that musicians and crew members alike have a good quality of life when they get back out on the road.
Before any artist takes the stage, lots of hard work and countless hours (often months, even years) were put in to make that one experience happen. Thus, the mental, physical, and financial well-being of all working musicians and crew personnel should now be at the forefront of our thoughts as opposed to an afterthought. These hard-working individuals deserve more, such as better food and nutrition options on the road, a living wage, and more mental health resources while on the road in the fast-paced environment often without comforts, friends, and family.
As we’ve seen living through a pandemic, we are only as healthy as the ones around us. Hence real change needs to come to the industry, not just temporary or superficial responses, but thought-out and conscientious solutions that will create lifelong change and sustainability for all.
If we love and miss going out and experiencing live events as much as we say we do, then it’s about time that we put the people making these experiences first. To learn how you can make your voice heard check out these nonprofits and organizations.
