Why Victoria’s live music scene is on the verge of collapse

Victoria’s live music scene is on the verge of collapse.

And the end of JobKeeper has only made things more difficult, according to a spokesman for Save Victorian Events.

Simon Thewlis told 3AW Breakfast it was really difficult for suppliers in the event industry.

“We have lost $10 billion worth of events, 100 thousand events over the last few months, 76 per cent of full time jobs are already gone,” he said.

“Now with JobKeeper just having ended, there is a huge number of suppliers who have no way to get through to when events really start to pick up again in September.

“You can’t insure against an event being cancelled.

“If your event is cancelled at the last minute, you can lose absolutely everything so a lot of people are scared to hold an event in case it is cancelled.”

Mr Thewlis said differences in COVID-19 restrictions had been a source of frustration.

“Sporting events have been getting special treatment compared to the rest of the industry,” he told 3AW Breakfast.

“Restrictions on all other events have been much stricter, for reasons we can’t understand.”

Click PLAY below to hear him explain more