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[UNHAPPY THREAD] Since the moment lockdown was announced for Dec 26th, we have had today's date circled in our calendar, in our brains and on the back of our eyelids every single night and morning.
Today should be the announcement for the @artscouncilni Organisations Resilience Fund. A life line for the disaster that was 2020 to catch us and lift us into 2021 and beyond.
None of our planning, financial forecasting, borrowing or application for business-saving funds
included January (and now February) being in lockdown. We had bookings in place for these weeks & months. We were finally getting going again.
included January (and now February) being in lockdown. We had bookings in place for these weeks & months. We were finally getting going again.
Since the "stay at home except for work that can't be completed at home" message re-emerged, we've been in an impossible situation. We haven't been told to close. However, our non-professional customers, (around 50% of our business) can't leave their home to attend the studio.
We don't feel safe or morally sound to take these risks, to put pressure on the NHS and endanger anyone's health or life. We cancelled all bookings that weren't attached to a record label, media broadcast or professional musicians at this time. Half our bookings gone.
After that, around half of our "professional" bookings have now been cancelled due to restrictions impacting clients. We are currently operating at 20-25% of our normal turnover.
Our overheads are running beyond normal capacity, with extra cleaning, more time between sessions, additional ventilation etc pushing our monthly overheads up by 20%. Our turnover is down 75% since March 2020. The shortfall is frightening.
As we've applied for the @ArtsCouncilNI fund to cover losses in 2020 and plan for the future, we can't apply for any other @Economy_NI support in 2021, set up to cover the Lockdown periods of Dec, Jan & Feb. They've excluded anyone applicable for the ACNI fund from applying.
Before 2020 we had applied for no public funding. We've been self-sufficient, forging a path and building a facility to be proud of and inspired by, to assist and engage with aspiring musicians and help our music community.
Now running at 20-25% capacity, and being asked by fully funded arts organisations to deliver projects for 1/3 of our normal rates, we're quickly running out of options to be able to continue like this.
There's around 10 independent producers who book our studio to make their productions. we've hosted 2000+ sessions with thousands of musicians from all over the world. We've reinvested, we've inspired, we've been inspired. It's never been about profit, it's been about fulfilment.
Today was the make or break moment we'd been holding our breath for... delaying plans, keeping musicians on hold, snapping at our kids, screaming into the abyss... and now we're dangling until "around Feb 8th" as we read the news over some basics bread & the last scrape of butter
We are aware that life is difficult, people are dying. If we were told we shall receive nothing and all would go to health, I'd be 100% on board. But we've all read about the shortfall in spending, the inability to deliver available funds.
We will survive. Will we be able to continue to pour everything into reinvestment? To offer it all for rehearsal-room rates? To stretch ourselves to get projects over the line? To continue to do it from our base in Northern Ireland? I can't emphatically say yes like I once did.
It feels wrong to admit we're stressed, to stand up for some help & support from our government in order to continue doing what we do. It flies in the face of a DIY upbringing and the hard-nosed combative attitude of much of our population who attack such calls for help.
The final thing this situation highlights, is how badly N.Ireland needs proper, functioning, professional music representation. We have no voice, no authority, no collective aim. I've been finding my own way since I started and for today, on Jan 29th 2021, I'm feeling lost.
