COVID-19 WREAKS HAVOC ON ENTERTAINMENT

MBABANE - When the coronavirus pandemic was first reported, the entertainment industry never anticipated to experience a huge standstill.

At first it was just a few displaced shows overseas which was experienced by giant events such as the Coachella and Ultra Music Festival and then it suddenly hit local shores, when some of South Africa called for a postponement of their scheduled events, which included the Castle Lite Unlocked.

As the crisis continues to affect the operations of record labels, venues, streaming services, booking agencies, tech start-ups, and other companies in the various corners of the entertainment industry, we took a look into how much havoc this pandemic has caused.

With over three months already gone and millions of Emalangeni lost, there has been positives and negatives such as entertainers opting for live streaming.
It’s taken some time but concert live streaming could finally be having its moment.

cancellations

Amid major festival cancellations and hundreds of tours and concerts getting the chop due to COVID-19, artists and their teams are scrambling for new ways going forward. It is clear that waiting isn’t much of an option for those who need the income or can’t afford to cancel and the fledgling live streaming industry finding itself in the spotlight.

A number of local shows have experienced tremendous responses from the audiences they cater for - when Solani’s Shisanyama introduced their ‘Behind Bars Party’ they garnered over 10 000 views on the same night followed by The Merchants of Bottomless Laughter, who acquired the same number of views for an online event they hosted in early May.

beneficial

These events were beneficial to keep entertainers relevant but were not entirely helpful because no money was made through the streams.
The MTN BUSHFIRE festival mentioned that they had lost close to E10 million because of the coronavirus which meant they had to make refunds for tickets as well as missing out on participating in strengthening the economy.

However, with the pandemic rearing its ugly head, other measures had to be put in place to try and raise funds for their beneficiaries where they hosted an online experience called the #KeepTheFireBurning virtual concert.
Entertainers felt neglected by the government as they held on to the little finances they had over the period of the partial lockdown.
Speaking to artist manager, Melusi Zox Dlamini, he said it was a tragedy that these conversations were not being done and wished that if they were being held privately they shouldn’t be.

“It is only the private sector which has built this industry and continues to help artists live off their talents. Ours does not even exist in the economic vocabulary of our government,” said Dlamini.

Rapper Illa Penboy also shared his sentiments on the issue saying he was not aware of any measures that the government was arranging for local artists and he really hoped that it was aware of the suffering that local artists were experiencing due to the lockdown.

Comedians

Comedians also had a say on this issue as popular comedian, Bonginkhosi ‘Dr Shakes’ Dlamini shared that he did not think that government was doing anything for the entertainment sectors.
“There is nothing that has been communicated with us entertainers, I am not sure about other associations though but for us comedians nothing has been said to that effect.

Some of us have lost a lot of money since we make a living through entertainment. I was really hoping that through the Prime Minister’s speech, he would say something positive about the industry but instead he just said gatherings remain prohibited,” he said.
Tendaness, who is a DJ, shared that entertainment was a very important part of the economy in that entertainers deserved the necessary support from the government.

“People need entertainment every day to get through life and we help people live through that with our talents. It would not be fair to forget about entertainers at a time like this and we would appreciate any form of support as gatherings remain closed,” said the DJ.
MTN SWAMA President Lutfo Dlamini shared that since all live and public performances were cancelled it meant that performing artists and their support acts were getting zero income.

He highlighted they had close to 450 artists who made a living through performances.
“Shops where music is sold were also closed down,” he said.
Dlamini said all of this havoc caused by the virus was difficult to estimate or quantify.

support

With the number of artists registered under the association, we were only given a support cash amounting to only E10 000. 
Eswatini National Council of Arts and Culture CEO Stanley Dlamini made a revelation in that they were part of a committee, which served as a road to recovery that would help ease the performing sector, to create a safe environment with suggested relief responses.

Such included compensating for the loss of income caused by the cancellation or postponement of events.
Independent artists such as Rapper Switch revealed that their scheduled events had to be put on hold, but he did reveal that this was the right opportunity to carry on making more music. 

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