Inadequate support and no roadmap means the future is bleak for live events

I moved to London in 2009 to take a dream job working for a lighting console manufacturer.

Freelance lighting designer John Rogers

After three and a half years of tech support and product testing, I decided to go freelance as a Lighting Designer.

Things have come full circle, now that there are no venues open and no shows to light; the only work I can do from home is infrequent software testing for that same company, whose position is as precarious as my own.

Things were very different even in late February. I was delighted to be a runner-up for Lighting Operator of the Year at the TPi awards. When my name was announced amongst the other intimidatingly talented nominees on the shortlist, a cheer went up from various pockets of the room. I was amongst friends and every inch the cliché of ‘just thrilled to be nominated’.

The rest of the year seemed full of possibilities. I felt like I had arrived at a milestone in my career and made sure I enjoyed every moment of that evening. I was looking forward to the people, places and projects 2020 had in store.

Those plans are obviously now on hold indefinitely. Two European tours and numerous festival bookings have been wiped from my calendar, and I’ve written off the prospect of doing any events-based work for the rest of this year at least.

I just don’t see how large gatherings can be safely held any time soon. It’s obvious that my industry will be amongst the very last to be able to return to work. Having lost tens of thousands of pounds of booked work, the government’s response so far has been to provide a grant that does not even cover my rent and bills. They have already announced it will be reduced again by one eighth for the final payment in August.

This already inadequate support will be phased out long before I am able to return to work. I’m currently attempting to plan an alternative career path for the first time in over a decade.

In January this year I was honoured to be invited to the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama as a visiting lecturer. I found my students to be informed; excited; inquisitive and intelligent.

If they were to ask me advise them on the state of the industry they are about to enter, I would tell them to be very careful and that the future is currently bleak, and in direct contrast to their bright young minds.