Well what a year it has been… and for many of us, our most difficult yet.
Every year typically has a few defining moments, but the past year has contained so many world-changing developments that it’s getting hard to believe we’re not in a simulation that’s running every possible scenario at once.
However, we are still here and despite all that has happened we will continue to stay strong and keep fighting through the end of 2020 and beyond to bring back our jobs, communities, identities and everything we love and hold dear.So here’s a quick recap of what we’ve achieved together and what we’ve got coming up before we say goodbye and good riddance to 2020!
We are as always super grateful to our members for sharing their news on our
Head of WILM’s Balkan chapter; Tejka Vasiljevic, is also a Production Manager at ‘Password Production’ who are behind the yearly D-festival in North Macedonia.
Due to Covid-19 shutting everything down, Password Production and their partners decided to take up the challenge to see if a Covid-safe festival was possible to execute. Tejka has put into words how they handled the assignment. You can read all about it here.
September
Berlin Meet Up
Despite the rain, a couple of our lovely members met up in Berlin in September.
A big thanks to our representative in Berlin and tour manager Tanner, for initiating this. We are looking forward to more casual meet ups in cities where & when it is safe to do so!
German members meet up in Berlin
October
#WeMakeEvents
#WeMakeEvents is an international movement, originally started by PLASA in the UK (Trade Show for Live Entertainment Technology) to highlight that the live events sector needs support from local governments worldwide to survive the Covid-19 crisis.
On September 30th PLASA organised a universal demonstration, where buildings worldwide were lit up in Red to indicate that the live event industry is bleeding.
Many of our members attended events in their respective countries and got involved in demonstrations across Europe.
#WeMakeEvents in Aarhus. The WILM team handed out homemade cupcakes to our colleagues in both Copenhagen and Aarhus. A special thank you to Alanna Pepin, Johanne Kjaer and Sandra Kaarsgaard for making the delicious WILM cupcakes ??
The office building in Copenhagen, where WILM is located on the 4th floor.
Upcoming Events
Hamburg Meetup – TBC
Normally we would love to meet fellow colleagues in Hamburg to exchange stories and advice at this cosy time of year, but as Germany has gone into lockdown we have had to put this on hold for now. As soon as Germany opens up again however, we will be doing a meet up in Hamburg!
The event will then be held in the bar ‘Hausverbot’, and is hosted by our German representative Olga Kenig.
Everyone from seasoned professionals to absolute beginners will be very welcome to come join us for a drink and some snacks. We will be following the development in Germany, and hope to come out with a new date after Dec. 20th.
WILM’s Motherhood Campaign – January
For a little while we have been working on the theme: “Motherhood combined with a career in the live music industry”. The interest came after we had observed female colleagues – both on stage and backstage – postpone having children while they were still working in the industry, and at the same time we met women hiding a pregnancy while they were on a gig.
It made us question whether it was acceptable or even possible to have kids and maintain a career in the live music industry? And if not, what could we change to make it easier and more acceptable?
The first thing we did was dig into the topic and find out what was going on, by asking a lot of women from the live music industry worldwide to share their thoughts and experiences via an anonymous survey. After collecting the data we then came up with ideas of how to enhance the conditions for mothers to be, and for those who already had children.
The results from our findings and subsequent conclusions are combined in a radio interview, a report and an article, which will all be published mid-January.
We hope you will receive it well, and start your own debate locally and globally about the subject.
WILM @ Eurosonic – January 13th
We are super excited to announce that WILM will be presenting at Eurosonic in the new year!
On the 13th January at 11am CET (via the organisations’ online platform) we will go through three themes that are close to our hearts:
“Motherhood combined with a career in the Live Music Industry” – We will be discussing our findings from our report and talking about our campaign for more focus on the subject.
Diversity Backstage – There is a lot of discussion these days about the lack of women on stage and the gender imbalance regarding festival bills, which is brilliant… but how is it backstage? Diversity needs to happen throughout the whole ecosystem to be truly effective and we will discuss ideas and initiatives about how we can achieve this.
Covid-19 and Crew – What is happening to the live events and music industry workers behind all the tours, venues, festivals across Europe during this pandemic? WILM and CREW Coalition will go through the current situation. WILM will also reveal the plan for a project called ‘27 Countries – One Voice’ *
*Due to there being hardly any information about our part of the industry and how it has been affected. WILM is continuously gathering data and numbers about the conditions backstage. Please help us collect this info by filling out any relevant surveys from us that we post in the near future.
WILM Awards 2020 & Virtual Christmas Party – December 17th
WILM invites you to join us for our 2020 WILM Awards/Christmas party.
Due to the obvious we can’t host our annual get-together in London this year as usual, but we will gather virtually instead!
The party will be a livestream from Copenhagen*, whilst also switching over to some of our representatives from different countries in between. We will have a live band playing from our Copenhagen studio, so put on your best Christmas outfit, grab a drink and log on for a fun night, featuring the Crew Quiz and our famous Bullsh** Bingo where you will have the chance to win some special WILM merch!
…But most importantly!
We will reveal the winners of this year’s WILMAwards!
Speaking of…have you voted yet?
The WILM Awards is our opportunity to highlight the brilliant women in the live music industry, pay them a tribute as well as show them off as role models for the next generation.
Please vote now!You only have until the 10th December to submit your votes.
*The live stream will start at 18.00 UTC, no registration is required – but we would love for you to show up from the beginning of the party, wherever you are located.
There will be a button on our website, where you can enter directly to the live stream.
If you are one of our local WILM Rep’s and would like to arrange a small gathering in your city for the virtual party, please get in touch with our communications manager Sana: info@womeninlivemusic.eu
We can’t wait! See you on Dec.17th ?
Looking for the perfect Christmas gift? ?
We have two new brand new items coming very soon to our Webshop!
What better way to celebrate the end of 2020 and bring in 2021, than with a calendar featuring our wonderful WILM members!?
Whether you hang it on your wall at home to remember those all important rescheduled 2021 tour dates, or at the office to keep tabs of all your Zoom meetings, the calendar is a lovely reminder of all the brilliant things our members have achieved.
Wondering what to do with all the downtime? Well how about getting stuck into an amazing 500 piece puzzle featuring a photo of WILM members on the Sabaton tour, taken by photographer Katie Frost!
Both products will be available very soon!
With a purchase, you show your support for WILM
?SHOP?
That’s all for now!
Stay safe, and stay tuned and we hope we will see you very soon.
– The WILM team
Please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us, if you have any inquiries info@womeninlivemusic.eu
Women In Live Music is a non profit organisation and we highly appreciate any donations in order for us to continue our work for minorities backstage. Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you would like to make a donation.
Please like our Facebook Page, where we put up dates for training, tradeshows etc. on a regular basis.
Oh, and please don’t forget to check out our website for merch and show your support for WILM ?
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