Entertainment workers protest in Milan. 500 trunks in Piazza Duomo

500 trunks lined up in Milan’s Piazza del Duomo: this is the singular form of protest that live performance workers have chosen to shout out loud their plight to the whole of Italy, using their symbolic tool (the typical black crate containing stage equipment) as a means of making themselves heard. A flash mob was held Saturday in the Lombard capital to denounce the state of deep crisis in which the live show business finds itself, all accompanied by a huge banner that read “One sector, one future.” The protest brought about 1,300 workers (including artists and workers such as technicians and event organizers) to the square, representing more than 570,000 workers in the sector.

What the entertainment workers are calling for is a working table with institutions and industry representatives to work to identify goals and rules to enable the sector to start working again in a safe and economically sustainable way. “From now on,” said the protest organizers, “it is necessary to establish a working table with the institutions and all representatives of the sector of events, concerts, congresses, shows and fairs and the Ministry of Cultural Activities and Tourism, the Ministry of Productive Activities and the Ministry of Health. Now, more than ever, it is necessary to put firm points in place and work compactly to identify a time goal and rules that can allow the sector to start working again safely and in an economically sustainable manner. From today, a gradual but determined path must begin to get the sector back on its feet.”

Several artists expressed their solidarity with the workers who took to the streets in Milan. They included Cesare Cremonini, Eros Ramazzotti, Vasco Rossi, Nek, Gianna Nannini, Vincenzo Salemme, Francesco Gabbani, Biagio Antonacci, Negrita, Saturnino Celani and many others. “There are thousands of professionals, women and men for whom the lockdown never ended and who do not know when they will be able to return to their former life,” Cremonini wrote on his Facebook profile. “Talking about those who yesterday were sound engineers, backliners, musicians, light designers, entrepreneurs, artists and today are no more. Some now work for Amazon. Others have reinvented an occupation. A great many are stationary. They haven’t had a job for months. I am a singer, I create projects together with them that unite teams of hundreds of these men and women. If there is a time to help us and decipher what is happening to the world of music, events and entertainment today, this is it. A universe that needs not applause but rules to follow to get back on track and plan for the future. In protecting 570,000 people in our country.”

Entertainment workers protest in Milan. 500 trunks in Piazza Duomo

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