VENUES and monuments were illuminated in red on Tuesday evening to highlight the plight facing many live venues.

In Aberystwyth, the town’s war memorial was lit up and in Lampeter, Victoria Hall became a beacon to mark the Red Alert movement and #WeMakeEvents aimed to raise awareness about the threat of job losses in the sector.

The event in Aberystwyth was organised by S&D Productions and Light Em Up.

On the reason behind the campaign, Joe Wilcox, who owns Light Em Up said: “Lighting is up to raise awareness for the lack of support given to the entertainment industry.

“It’s (coronavirus) wiped our business out. There’s no work.”

Manager of Victoria Hall in Lampeter, Gary Thorogood also explained the reasoning behind his venue’s participation.

Gary said: “We had to close the Victoria Hall in March.

“We rely on hall activities to generate income to manage the building and its activities.

“We are a not for profit making company run by volunteers, which we have done successfully since 2011.

“We were in the process of undertaking a major refurbishment, including a new box office, bar, sound and lighting equipment and redecoration.

“This is possible from funding from European money, Ceredigion County Council and Lampeter Town Council.

“We had to lay off contracted staff and reduce costs to an absolute minimum to save on costs. (This even included stopping the bin collections.)

“We planned a relaunch in September building on the live music events previously hosted, but also promoting other arts entertainment events like theatre, comedy and film.

“This in addition to all our other activities from youth theatre to markets, keep fit classes to craft classes, conferencing to weddings.

“A thriving town needs a vibrant Performing Arts venue to share the good things in life.

“We feel there will be an even greater need in the long term. However our difficulty is surviving until that point.

“A Small Business Grant and a generous donation from Grannell Community Energy project have extended our life expectancy.

“However we have no idea when people will be comfortable coming to a community venue again even if restrictions could be lifted.’

Matthew Knowles, who is a freelance events technician and hour technician and director at Victoria Hall added: “This year was shaping up to be one of the best with the main company I work for Pro Audio Visual expanding its business to ibiza.

“With Victoria Hall who, After completing refurbishment and significant investment into state of the art equipment was also looking to the future with hosting events and theatre productions for our local community.

“Then in March it was exactly as others have described, it was like turning off a switch within a few days all events were cancelled and we were forced to shut the doors on our community.

“I can’t begin to describe how it feels to have your livelihood taken away from you without knowing when it will return.

“What’s worse, I have no idea what support will be available beyond October and when restrictions are lifted whether or not there will be an industry left to return too.”