Surviving Covid 19 Alife Proposes Recovery Measures

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As Live Events, Concerts and Festivals incurred an estimated loss of RM300 million over the first half of 2020.  Rizal Kamal, President of ALIFE
ARTS, LIVE FESTIVALS AND EVENTS ASSOCIATION (ALIFE) applauds the government’s affirmative decision to enforce and subsequently extend the Movement Control Order on Malaysians to combat the rise of COVID-19 pandemic in the country. ALIFE has earlier urged all its members to cancel or postpone all events till June 2020. Any activities from June onwards will also be subject to the government’s lift on the ban of mass gatherings.

“Our industry is among the hardest hit by Covid-19. Many events were cancelled or postponed as early as January and we won’t be able to resume activities for many months more. The process of planning of events, booking artist and venues are done months in advance. With current uncertainties, it’s difficult to forecast when live events would be able to start again.” Rizal Kamal, President of ALIFE.

A number of large events have been cancelled or postponed to-date such as Rockaway Festival, the two-day annual rock music festival that has the last ten years brought in 15,000 rockers together annually, 12 per cent of which are foreign tourists according to organiser Iqbal Ameer, Group CEO of Livescape Group.

“The last six weeks alone, via MyTicket.Asia, we have refunded 80,000 tickets from a variety of events, an indication of tough times ahead,” said Dirk Sass, Chief Executive Officer of SeatAdvisor.

Another festival affected include the Good Vibes Festival, a two-day music festival usually held in August that featured local and international artistes and attract up to 23,000 visitors locally and internationally. If cancelled for 2020, Good Vibes Festival would have lost a revenue of RM20 million.

“The above are just a small sample of the challenges faced by industry players which provides an indication of the tough times ahead for an industry. Our industry is an essential part of tourism’s ecosystem and bring hundreds of millions into the economy. We hope the government will provide some assistance and leeway to help stimulate the industry and recover post-COVID19,” added Rizal.

And estimated total of RM300 million is already lost in the events industry, with many activities cancelled up to August 2020. More damages are expected to domino as industry members struggle with the lack of viable activities and support.

Concerts and festivals attract audience not just locally but from neighbouring countries such as Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines and Australia. With the loss of live events, the entire ecosystem of hotels, transport and retail stand to lose an estimated income of RM1 billion for the year.

The live events industry would like to request a short term RM75 Million relief package to save the jobs, businesses and livelihoods of Malaysia’s live performance workforce. Without urgent Government intervention, the sector will likely face serious and irreversible losses.

The requested RM75 Million emergency support package includes, in the immediate-term:
​Immediate cash injections for the sector to jump-start the industry. This will be used to create festivals, concerts and shows that will stimulate the economy and increase inbound tourist, as soon as we are able to do so. Hardship support for artists, performers, musicians, crew, technicians and more.
Other requests to be implemented for 2020 include:
Waiver of entertainment tax for federal and all state; Abolishment of Puspal’s recent addition of blackout dates which significantly reduces the number of days for events; Reduction in DBKL’s RM30,000 deposit for international events and RM10,000 for local events.
ALIFE was formed in 2016 with the objective to promote and encourage positive growth in the Malaysian arts, life events and festivals industry by improving industry regulations, creating best practices and code of conduct.

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