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A music concert in front of an empty hall.
Corona-compliant, fans watch from home via streaming service.
The cultural and creative industries are one of the big losers of the past year.
For many artists, closing theaters and stages is equivalent to a professional ban.
With the streaming concert, the a capella band ›Lalelu‹ from Hamburg found a way to reach their fans and earn money.
Frank Valet / musician
“
We haven't earned anything for months.
The annual income has halved, it has almost gone to zero.
We were lucky that as a band we had savings from which we could still finance ourselves.
Half of what you would have otherwise remains at most.
«
Jan Melzer / musician
»
You have such a foggy feeling, even if it doesn't exist.
On February 8th it was our big stage anniversary in the Laeiszhalle in front of 1,600 spectators.
It now feels like an experience from another world.
«
Today the band performs around 40 kilometers south of Hamburg in a warehouse.
Only the technicians who guarantee the transmission to the Internet are present.
Jan Melzer / musician
“
It's online.
We make the best of it so much, we have fun, as you can see.
But of course it's different.
Look there, it's empty.
It's empty, completely empty.
«
“The show starts. 5,4,3,2,1 and please. "
»Hello Hamburg, hello Berlin, hello Munich, hello Düsseldorf!
See you guys, it's our 5th online concert, streaming concert, here from the great streaming studio.
It's always a cool feeling to see that you're all there! "
Tobias Hanf / musician
“There are colleagues who shut up. They were very successful acts. They said we're giving up now. We look for other professions and see if it starts again at some point. but I fear that once you work in another profession that the step backwards will be difficult. "
The event industry is the sixth largest branch of the economy in Germany, around 1.5 million jobs are affected by the crisis according to a study by the event industry interest group.
The action alliance ›Red Alert‹ tries again and again to point out the emergency with demos and actions.
Solo self-employed in particular suffer, but even large companies cannot yet call up the promised funds.
Nico Ubenauf / Action Alliance ›Red Alert‹
“Herr Altmaier can tell as much as he wants with Anne Will. It's just not correct. There are simply still an infinite number of problems and, above all, that you cannot submit any applications at all because all the platforms have not yet been activated. So when he talks about how many people have already been helped, then it simply does not correspond to the facts. "
There are currently many ideas around the world about how concerts and festivals could take place in the future.
The US band ›Flaming Lips‹, for example, hosted a concert in which the audience stood in transparent plastic bubbles.
The first major festivals such as Glastonbury in the UK have already been canceled for 2021, with more to follow.
Nico Ubenauf / Action Alliance ›Red Alert‹
»We actually believe that the live experience will become a bit more of a VIP moment again. So designed to be smaller, more exclusive and possibly also of higher quality. And then always with a digital version too. The so-called hybrid event. "
Smaller and more exclusive - on the grounds of the ›Wild Möhre‹ festival in Brandenburg near Cottbus, that's already a reality.
Here, where thousands of people have danced and celebrated every summer for the last 8 years, the organizers have already rescheduled in 2020.
But the mood is subdued.
Alexander Dettke / Organizer ›Wilde Möhre‹
"Confidence is diminishing because of course we have the mutant and we have infectiologists who tell us it won't work, the summer might get worse, it's all very, very scary. I think the glimmers of hope are slowly fading."
As one of the few, Dettke held smaller camps with 1000 people each instead of a large festival in 2020 - and thus saved themselves from ruin.
Mask and distance requirements on the dance floors, checks by the health department, deposit of contact details - the hygiene concept developed with the authorities worked: Although six people were infected during a camp, it was possible to trace that they had not infected anyone.
Nobody knows whether this will work again despite the virus mutant - work and planning are still being done on the site.
“
The question is, could one work with rapid tests, even a local PCR test laboratory is under discussion or offer people to do a test beforehand?
But in the end we are still there and wait to see what kind of rules will come and what can be done in which framework.
«
Alexander Dettke / Organizer ›Wilde Möhre‹
“If there are no events at all this year, it would mean the end for us if we are not saved in some way. Because we cannot take any help, because we plan very firmly with it and have generated income and people work for it. "
Despite the pandemic, Dettke planned for 2021 in 2020 and did not send his employees on short-time work.
A ban on events in the summer would mean, in addition to its own bankruptcy, no fees for artists, no salaries for employees or technology lenders.
The concert by the a capella comedy band ›Lalelu‹ is streaming into the living room of the fans without any problems.
Financially it is a success for the group, 874 tickets were sold for the evening.
The Internet as a concert stage and with canned applause.
Jan Melzer / musician
“You hear the applause and you think you are meant. It doesn't matter if it's a machine. Very weird."
Sanna Nyman / musician
“It's different from being castrated. That sounds bad, but something is missing. This tingling, you don't feel the space that way either. People simply bring such a crackle with them. It's not there now either. "
Tobias Hanf / musician
“The Live cannot replace it. It's already going in that direction. it's a satisfying feeling. There were so many people there. Something has definitely built up there. The real live feeling, that really only works live. «
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