Get vaccinated, get back to live: Australia’s music industry launches #VAXTHENATION

The industry needs you to get fully-vaxxed. And with a big, nationwide push, for government to guarantee no more lockdowns.

That’s the crux of a new campaign, #VAXTHENATION, which pulls together an extraordinary lineup of musicians, industry leaders and businesses.

The objective is a simple one – to encourage Aussies to roll up a sleeve.

Launching today (Sept. 6), #VAXTHENATION enjoys a national platform by way of a TVC featuring Powderfinger’s 2000 hit single ‘My Happiness’.

Powderfinger

With the live industry facing the darkest 18-months of any lifetime, the leading players in Australia’s music industry joined forces to amplify the message.

It’s an initiative of the so-called LIVE Alliance, a gathering of industry stakeholders and advocates, including the Association of Artist Managers (AAM), APRA AMCOS, ARIA, Australian Festivals Association (AFA), Frontier Touring/Mushroom Group, Live Nation, Live Performance Australia (LPA), Secret Sounds, and TEG.

“For the music industry as a whole, there’s really no pathway out of this apart from seeing everybody get vaccinated,” explains Matt Gudinski, CEO of Mushroom Group.

“The only way to move forward is for a number of us to get together and use our reach to get the right message out there.”

That message isn’t about pushing vax passports, but something much more existential.

“Everyone has come together to remind Aussies of the good times and how great and how important live music is to not only our lives but our well- being,” Gudinski tells TIO.

The campaign was seeded when advertising veteran Russel Howcroft appeared on Q&A and spoke passionately about the live industry’s troubles, and took shape when Live Nation CEO Roger Field and Russel hammered out a plan.

An element to the project is, get vaccinated, and get people back to having those golden moments again. And no more interruptions.

To drive it home, more than 400 artists are on board, as are businesses across the wider entertainment sector, including YouTube and TikTok.

The likes of Jimmy Barnes, Alice Ivy, Amyl and The Sniffers, Suze DeMarchi, Iva Davies, Pnau and many others share their own messages in support getting the jab.

“I’ve got my double jab certificate and I’m looking forward to performing again in front of fully vaxxed audiences,” comment Ross Wilson, frontman of Daddy Cool and Mondo Rock.

“Let’s Jab then Let’s Rock!.”

According to data provided by the LIVE Alliance, two thirds of industry jobs (79,000) had disappeared by the end of 2020, while $23.6 billion of economic output and $10.7 billion of added value had been wiped out by the pandemic.

With Cabinet agreeing to a target of 80% vaccinations before the country can truly open-up, the Alliance implores Australians to get vaccinated, “so we can all get back to doing the things that we love.”

This article originally appeared on The Industry Observer, which is now part of The Music Network.