Artists can’t wait to get back on tour, but after more than a year on pause for the Covid-19 pandemic, the live events business is facing a potential worker crisis: not enough roadies.
Concerts operate in a world of contracts, with workers moving from gig to gig, tour to tour. Without live events, though, many stage hands, lighting and sound technicians, ticket takers and ushers assumed other jobs.
“No one saw a year without work,” said Michael Strickland, chief executive of the lighting company Bandit Lites. “As it continued, you lost people along the way mentally, physically, spiritually, economically.”
The concern among event organizers is that those workers might not come back, having moved on to other jobs that might be more stable, more lucrative or offer perks like insurance or retirement options. Also lost is a generation of apprentices, the younger workers who would have been learning the craft, eager to graduate from the warehouse gig to the local show and on to the national tour.
Mr. Strickland, who has emerged as a liaison between the concert industry and policy makers about support for workers and venues, estimates that one-third of pre-pandemic workers won’t be returning to the live-events business.
