2021 The last concert?

2021 The last concert? Will there be the last concert? Or has it already been?

Here’s what happened yesterday in Italy.

#ultimoconcerto, this is the hashtag, with which over 90 Italian live clubs have decided to launch a campaign on social media to turn the light on their situation, to question their future.

When will the Last Concert be? Or maybe it has already been there?

No more music, no more crowds, no more parties! Only silence and an increasingly uncertain future may not even be there anymore.

Due to the covid emergency, the concerts have been blocked for almost a year now, and the clubs have never been able to open their doors again.

2021 The last concert? 90 music venues from all over Italy participated in the initiative #ultimoconcerto

Thus, at 11 o’clock on Thursday 28 January, 90 Italian music venues shared the venue’s image on their Facebook and Instagram pages with the opening date and 2021 indicated as the closure year.

All clearly accompanied by a question that leaves a sense of bitterness in the mouth: “The last concert?”.

Many clubs from all over Italy participated in the initiative, to name a few: Alcatraz, Fabrique, i Magazzini Generali, in Milan and Hiroshima Mon Amour, Cap10100, Spazio211, Off Topic, Magazzino sul Po in Turin and Estragon , Mercato Sonato, Binario 69, and Locomotiv club in Bologna, the Vidia Club in Cesena and many many others.

All closed for a year, all desolately empty.

It is #Ultimoconcerto, a social campaign – wanted, organised and promoted by KeepOn Live, Arci and Assomusica, with the collaboration of Live DMA – born to draw attention to the health of the live music sector blocked from the beginning of the pandemic.

The social campaign was slowly revealed to the public.

The purpose, the organisers explain, is

“to lead to reflect on the condition in which live clubs and concert halls are found.

“Currently, despite the enormous role that these spaces have in terms of creation, promotion and dissemination of music, culture, and their indisputable social value, it can be said that they have been almost ignored by the numerous decrees that have followed one another in recent months”.

“Ignored by the decrees of recent months.”

“For the venues, in fact, the Government has often cited in the measures “cinema and show theatre, but has not paid due attention to these realities that risk disappearing”.

“When we talk about live clubs we must, first of all, think about a set of structures to maintain, a staff made up of numerous people who invest constant energy and commitment to offer a proposal of quality contemporary music”,

Reads the press release presenting the initiative.

“We are talking about spaces that are in a situation of absolute emergency!”

“We are talking about spaces that are in a situation of absolute emergency, without any certainty about the future and the actual possibility of being able to overcome this long phase of crisis”.

“There are many participants in the initiative: from north to south, from the smallest to the largest, everyone has put their face to it”,

The press release continues.

“Some are historical landmarks for generations, others were born recently.

All together they joined hands to send us a signal!

Currently, despite the enormous role that these spaces have in terms of creation, promotion and dissemination of culture, it can be said that they have been almost ignored by the numerous decrees of recent months.

Provisions that have cited cinemas and theatres but that have not devoted due attention to these realities that we risk disappearing ».

Many on social media have shown closeness and affection for the premises’ managers.

And everyone asked for only one thing: that it is not the last concert.

2021 The Last Concert? by Sergio Curadi Naumann

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Also, read:

Will live music, concerts and festivals return in 2021?