During your regular doomscrolling last night, you might have noticed something kinda weird being posted by a few big accounts Aussie musicians and groups who put on live gigs. Splendour In The Grass, Powderfinger, Ticketek and Live Nation all curiously posted videos of static, with news headlines about lockdowns glitched in, paired with a simple caption: “Stop the interruptions”.
Now we’ve got some clarity on the odd drop – a huge cohort of the music industry are pushing for Aussies to get vaccinated so that live gigs, events, and festivals can return to us.
The new push is called Vax The Nation, and it’s backed by over 400 people across the music biz – including artists, crew, venues, ticketing and touring companies, festivals, music labels, comedy producers, theatre, dance, and opera companies, and global players like YouTube and TikTok. It’s definitely not some small fish business here.
Spearheaded by the newly-established Live Industry Venues & Entertainment Alliance (LIVE), the Vax The Nation campaign is reminding people what it felt like to be at a live gig, a festival or the theatre as a catalyst to get the jab so we can get back to that. They’ve kicked it all off with a video that 100% sent shivers up my spine just thinking about what it was like to be standing in a crowd of strangers belting out the same song together.
Truly nothing like it, folks.
This new campaign is backed by so many of your faves, who have all lost work, cancelled gigs, postponed festival appearances, and had their livelihoods put on hold for the last 18 months.
Everyone from A.B. Original to WAAX, Spacey Jane to Courtney Act, Peach PRC to Flume has come through and thrown their support behind this new push to get the jab so we can all get back to having a big boogie on a dusty dance floor for hours.
It’s no secret that the local entertainment industry has been absolutely belted throughout the pandemic. In that time, it’s believed around 80,000 Aussies have lost their jobs, and now a huge chunk of those people are urging punters to get the jab so we can all get back to doing what we love – getting around live gigs, events, concerts, and festivals.
“I’m a qualified nurse vaccinator working on the COVID frontline,” Georgia Maq from Camp Cope said in support of the movement.
“I got vaccinated as soon as it was available to me without a moment of doubt or hesitation. I did it for my grandparents, for my sister who has a physical disability and 30% lung capacity, for my community, and for myself. There’s a one-way ticket to getting live music back, and it’s vaccination.”
If anything, we gotta get it done so we can return to our spiritual homes: absolutely cutting sick in the pit at a festival in the peak of summer.
All adult Aussies (yep, even those of us under 40) are currently able to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Click here to see which clinics are offering it, and talk to a doctor for more info.
The best vaccine is the first one you can get, and that’ll be our ticket out of this mess.
