NME about what the US live music community still needs from the US government to survive this stage of the ongoing pandemic.With ticketholder no-show rates reaching a high of 50 per cent last month and the National Independent Venue Foundation recently relaunching its Emergency Relief Fund, venues and artists told us they are still facing show cancelations, financial challenges, and health risks associated with COVID.Ella Williams, AKA Squirrel Flower, was set to tour independent venues across America in January, following the release of her second album ‘Planet (i)’.
But when the highly contagious Omicron variant caused an uptick in COVID cases in January, Williams made the call to push back the first two weeks of her tour.“I didn’t postpone the shows because of local guidance or venue guidance,” she told NME. “I just decided to myself.”Williams has had to conduct her own research on COVID rates and venue safety while out on tour, telling us that’s it’s been hard to make moral decisions for “me, my band, my fans, and for the venue workers because there is no government guidance.”For her, the lack of guidance for artists is a symptom of the government’s lack of respect and support for the livelihood of Americans in general.“I don’t think the government gives a shit about any workers in the US right now,” Williams told us. “When you look at [president] Joe Biden he’s not giving [money] to anyone except for already wealthy people and bailing out banks and large businesses.”In 2020, the government started multiple Federal Unemployment Programs to support those who could no longer work because of COVID.
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