Live Music Lockdown: An Industry at Risk?

For Live DMA, the association representing over 3,250 live music venues across Europe, Arne Dee from Amsterdam (Netherlands) is the Survey coordinator, responsible for the venue's data collection. Since 2001, Arne has worked in the live music sector for the Association of Dutch Music Venues and Festivals (VNPF), for venues EKKO and Melkweg and his own Nordic Delight Festival. In 2012 he founded his own consultancy buro and booking agency Dee Music.

Gaianè Kevorkian is project manager for cultural productions. During her bachelor degree in Musicology, in Cremona - University of Pavia, she experimented and deepened this passion collaborating with diverse projects and non-profit organisations. She co-funded La Città della Canzone, a workshop for young songwriters based on an innovative educational format throughout the collective creative process. Her interest in cultural production got wider through collaborations with diverse institutions that promote social projects for migration processes. She got a certificate as social facilitator thanks to the MARS - Music & Resilience Training Course, co-funded by Erasmus +. This training led to the creation of two research projects brought on in the asylum seeker centre of Cremona and two publications. Lately she got closer to the work of national and international cultural networks, thanks to the Fellowship Program promoted by European Music Council, to which she participated in 2018-2020. At the end of this experience she started working with KeepOn Live as PM.

Benjamin Feyen is an EU cultural policy expert based in Brussels. He manages the Cultural Creators Friendship Group (CCFG), a cross-partisan coalition in the European Parliament, consisting of currently 25 individual Members of the European Parliament (MEP) from 6 different political groups and 14 different countries. The CCFG aims at improving the European cultural ecosystem with a focus on the Cultural and Creative Sectors (CCS) and especially on the situation and conditions of creators of cultural works, i.e. authors, performers and artists. Benjamin Feyen has two decades of experience in politics and is a passionate songwriter and music producer. For the last seven years, he has been working in EU affairs in Brussels, including for three MEPs. Until 2021, he was Head of Office and Cultural Policy Advisor to German MEP Niklas Nienass of the Greens. In this position, Benjamin was involved in the negotiations of the EU's new Creative Europe programme 2021-2027 and a number of political resolutions relevant to the music sector. For many years, he has been speaker at music conferences across Europe.

Audrey Guerre coordinates Live DMA, the European network for live music associations. Her experience in studies, job opportunities and personal beliefs early led her to specialise herself into European cooperation and live music. She now provides Live DMA members with political monitoring insight, tools and opportunities to meet & exchange best practices. She also represents their interests to European institutions and partners. Audrey is the vice-president of the European Music Council, and member of the board the French music venue Trempo in Nantes.