• Sydney’s events among hardest hit by Covid controls, with ongoing constraints and shredded confidence a handbrake on recovery
• Backing events sector with insurance cover, targeted tweaks to Dine & Discover vouchers and other actions will help ensure events make a big comeback
• New paper follows consultation with big and small event producers across Greater Sydney.

Six key actions will help reboot Sydney’s hard-hit events sector, according to a paper released today by urban policy think tank Committee for Sydney.

“The Sydney we know and love is roaring back, let’s make sure the city’s buzzing events scene is bang in the middle of that recovery,” said Matt Levinson, Director Corporate Affairs at the Committee for Sydney.     

“This is a sector that never got a chance to recover after the first wave of lockdowns in 2020, and that’s only been compounded this year, with little sign of respite as we head into summer.

“We’ve talked with big and small organisations that run events across Greater Sydney. They’re facing ongoing capacity constraints, with the high risk of cancellation due to Covid-19 outbreaks, weakened consumer confidence and the pressure of immediate payroll liabilities.

“This sector is vital to Sydney and the state’s medium and long-term social, cultural and economic prosperity. To get Sydney’s events booming again, organisers need support to take risks putting on events. Equally consumers need the confidence to attend events.”

This paper follows consultation with representatives of event organisers and touring companies, sporting codes, record labels, cultural institutions, hotels and hospitality businesses, and government, including small and large organisations representing operations across Greater Sydney, to understand challenges facing the sector, and the most effective actions.

Based on that work, we today put forward six key actions to support the events sector’s reopening and recovery:

• Underwrite a reinsurance scheme covering communicable disease
• Remove density limits and create a clear, consistent roadmap
• Address labour shortages
• Targeted payments and seed funding
• Improve targeting of economic stimulus
• Create a calendar of events with effective coordination of 1000+ scale events.

Read ‘Six actions to get Sydney’s events sector back on track’ in full here.