New Denver Installation Details How Pandemic May Cause Irreparable Damage To Entertainment Industry

DENVER (CBS4) - COVID-19 prevents people from gathering in large groups, so most concerts and events are canceled. That's been the story of the late spring and summer so far in Colorado.

"We were the first to close and the last to reopen," Brynn Swanson, the owner of First Look Events, told CBS4.

The cancelling of live events has meant that many Coloradans who typically work them have been out of work.

"There are tens of thousands of jobs that people don't even consider in the live events world," Swanson said.

That's why the Colorado Event Alliance put together an empty event installation in front of the Denver Center for Performing Arts: to bring awareness to how many people are being affected. They say if the events industry doesn't get going soon, the effects will be devastating.

"Over 75 percent of our special businesses in Colorado will close their doors and never reopen," said Swanson.

They are calling on the federal government to extend and enhance the Payroll Protection Program, Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, and Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation to help bail out live event workers who are fighting for their livelihood.

Swanson says, "We've worked very well with our local government and now it's bigger than our local government."

If you think this won't affect those outside of the events industry, you may want to think again. Brynn says, "When this pandemic ends and people want to celebrate, they want to have weddings, they want to have barbecues, they want to have concerts ... over half of those businesses will no longer be here to do that."