cBy Claire Corrigan
Mullingar’s Kim O’Callaghan was one of the executive producers for Saturday night’s ‘Songs from An Empty Room’ which featured a host of big-name artists, including Aimée, Denise Chaila, Picture This and Gavin James as well as Mullingar’s The Blizzards and The Academic, aimed at supporting live events crews during the pandemic.
The night of live music was broadcast on RTÉ2, RTÉ 2FM, and RTÉ Player on Saturday night and has already caraised an incredible €410,000 to support live events crews during the pandemic, with funds still coming in. It was also revealed last week that U2 donated a huge €200,000 to the cause which is the first of its kind.
Kim, who is Project manager and Deputy Event controller for MCD’s Slane, Croke Park, RDS, Pairc Ui Chaoimh and Aviva shows, has held a variety of roles in the events industry both in Ireland and internationally including in 2015-2017 when she held the position of Chief Operating Officer at The Olympia Theatre during the refurb of the iconic Dublin Venue.
Kim is the founder and CEO of EvntzApp which launched the #WeAreTheSupportAct initiative to support crew in the live events industry in Ireland- a campaign from which Saturday night’s show stemmed.
“We originally did the crew merchandise campaign through the app with Bressie and The Blizzards”. The initiative was called ‘We Are the Support Act’ and was created to raise awareness and funds for crew within the industry. As the weeks and months progressed, the merchandise was selling really well so having had such a positive response to people supporting the industry, we wanted to find a way to expand the initiative to get other artists and personnel involved.”
“WHAT WE COULD DO TOGETHER”
After speaking to several of her colleagues in the industry, Kim decided it was crucial that everyone work together in order to have the biggest impact. “It was about what we could do together, rather than everyone doing separate initiatives. I spoke to a colleague in the INEC, Bressie and Fergal D’Arcy and various other colleagues I work with, through my role in MCD and we had the idea to try and use a selection of venues to put on performances. The problem originally was the Covid restrictions so when the restrictions were lifted, we decided to use them and put on a performance and show and get all the bands involved and use the existing GoFundMe and Crew Merchandise campaign that we had started.
“I called a friend and colleague of mine, Ronan Murphy, and I explained that I really wanted to look at working with a variety of venues and Artists to put on one big fundraising event.
Ro came up with the really cool twist to get the performers on the floor and film the artists with the background of the empty room. From there, I called another close friend and colleague of mine Eamonn Fox, who is a production manager with ShinAwiL Productions and his wife Sheila is executive producer for Shinawil. I explained the idea to them and they loved it so they pitched it to RTÉ and as they say, the rest is history.”
“While this was all progressing, myself and seven other Event industry colleagues were nominated as the Event Production Industry Covid-19 Working Group committee to represent 3,500 full-time and 15,000 part-time personnel within the live Events industry. So as a group, EPIC, with the support of our other amazing colleagues within the industry undertook to put on this incredible night of entertainment and shine a light on the hardworking personnel behind the scenes. I was one of the Executive producers for the show, ” she explained.
Kim said the support and response overall has been phenomenal. “We had a great lineup of artistes involved but we also wanted to get support videos from other artistes who weren’t able to be there. U2 did two videos, Hozier did one for us, Niall Horan did one, Bronagh Gallagher did one and we also even got one from The President himself! There is also video pieces from people within the industry and a piece about Minding Creative Minds services specifically also.
“The support overall has been fantastic and really shows how much the events industry does mean to everyone.”
“For the artists, they have really showed how much crew mean to them. The original fund was already doing well but the show has given us that big push to publicly get the campaign out there. U2 very generously gave us a donation of €200k which was a huge boost – we are blown away by the support from them.”
“The events industry is made up of highly skilled specialised workforce of dedicated, hardworking individuals and businesses, from Production managers, Project managers, promoters stage managers Lighting, sound, technical crew, riggers, site crew, safety officers, security, cleaning staff, concessions and bar staff, suppliers of temporary infrastructure such as barriers, tents, pitch cover, plumbers, electricians, event control teams, voluntary services, Order of Malta, Civil Defence, marketing, press, PR, transport. And that’s to name but a few of the roles that go into putting on events.
“It quite literally often takes an army of people to put on live events. These are the people behind the scenes, the first to arrive and the last to leave who work tirelessly to put on amazing shows that everyone has come to love and they need support now as currently there is no clear road for the industry to return to work.”
Fund still active
Kim said the fund is still active and will run continuously for the next number of weeks. “The crew merchandise is absolutely flying out and we can’t keep up with orders at the moment. We are inundated. People really want to buy the merchandise to be seen to have supported the industry.”
“The live events industry is worth over €1.7 billion to the economy of Ireland overall. While we know there are a lot of challenges ahead on the road to recovery we will get there but in order to do so it’s important that we work together.”
“As of Monday, Bressie took over the Spotify channel for the Lockdown Ukulele Rockdown project and is raising further awareness and donations for the campaign.
“Bressie and I also have a few other things in the pipeline that we are going to be doing in the next while, so we are keeping the campaign active. The show was obviously a huge part but the campaign itself is set to continue over the next couple of weeks. It’s a testament to the spirit of the industry, how many people have got behind it. The money raised is going to help to great resources Minding Creative Minds, which is a 24/7 well-being and support programme for people in the Live events industry which also offers business, legal and financial advice and support and the Association of Irish Stage Technicians’ (AIST) hardship fund.”
If you want to donate, you can text ‘Song’ to 50300 to donate €4, or visit the website https://songsfromanemptyroom.com
where there is a link to a GoFundMe page where you can donate online or you can also purchase crew merchandise through the site and 100% of the profits go to the Fund.
