Customer and audience facing industries, like the events and entertainment industries, are disproportionately affected by this pandemic. We are the people who set up and run campaign events and fundraisers. We create and maintain Broadway shows, non-profit theatre and dance, concert tours, sporting events, Fashion Week, movies, television, expos, weddings, and any corporate event or party you’ve ever attended.

We were the first industry to shut down in March and we will be the last to return. Cirque du Soleil, one of the world's largest and most reputable arts organizations, laid off 3,500 employees and filed for bankruptcy. Thousands of venues across the United States are closing permanently. Broadway has announced it will not reopen until at least January 2021, setting a grim standard for the rest of the industry.

We are mostly middle class workers who are typically ineligible for regular unemployment benefits because we operate as self-employed freelancers. PUA exapnded UI coverage to freelancers (though still neglects to provide adequate relief to combination 1099/W2 earners). The rent, inexplicably, remains due. Bills need to be paid. Even those of us that are eligible for regular benefits cannot survive on the base unemployment rate in our state.

We are demanding that the Senate provide actionable rent relief for those on unemployment. We need your help. Our industry is rapidly disappearing. Many artists and technicians are fleeing our cities and professions to survive. The PUA, the FPUC in particular, is saving the entertainment community. We must extend it.

For more information and specific ways you can help the entertainment and events industries, click here.