The radio station

At the beginning it seemed like the coronavirus would be easy to handle, but right now we have to stay at home to stop the disease spreading. We can still operate Raheem Radio remotely, but the station is also involved in events and concerts, which have all been cancelled. At the moment people are taking it day by day. It seems crazy but this frozen situation has helped bring to light the need for communities to re-think the world. We can stay with our children at home. We can use technology to connect with each other to talk and think. In a really fast world, having some time to stop and reboot could be an interesting and positive thing.Obviously many small companies and clubs are at risk of closing forever, and some of them will. This is a big problem involving many people and the government has to do something, otherwise our society will collapse. We have a radio station that connects many different clubs, and shines light on the music and cultural reality of this city. The community has responded in a positive way, sending us recorded material, and there are other broadcasting experiments happening on other platforms. The music industry will suffer but it is also making a soundtrack for hope. It is a difficult moment, and some people are scared, but I think most people are trying to turn this quarantine into something positive.

The nightclubs

This situation has practically broken our legs. In agreement with the other clubs in the city, we decided to close even before the ministerial ordinance, because the health of our people comes before anything. Being in the south of Italy, where indoor clubs close for the summer, our annual work is already reduced to six or seven months, so staying closed for an additional month—the impact on our business will be huge.In total transparency, I can say that Basic Club is coming from a positive season, but it might not be enough. Even if we are closed we still face the same fixed costs, including rent, utilities, salaries, bills and so on. We must tighten our belts and look forward, hoping the government will help us in some way. Our clubbing industry, and specifically the underground scene, was already having difficulties for many reasons, and many colleagues of other clubs are not sure they can reopen when everything is over.In Napoli, it seems like we're living in a horror movie, for real. Very few people are on the street, none after 6 PM, all with masks and permits in their pockets just to go to work or some extreme necessity. In a sunny and friendly city like Napoli used to living outdoors, based on human contacts—it's really hard. I like to be optimistic, and I hope that this bad period makes the value of simple things, of real things, reappear. A hug, a smile, a record that touches your soul, the emotion of good music, a drink shared between two, a chat with a person you've never seen before, or simply being together in a place to share the same passion.The start of the virus had an impact on us even when it was just in China. Once it hit Korea, things got incredibly quiet and now we have a steady small crowd, very local. Basically every international booking until April has been cancelled, staff has had to be cut back and we've all had to get by on less. Landlords are giving 30 percent rental breaks in Seoul so that helps somewhat.We were asked to scale back and have had limited events. We have taken the initiative to ensure customer safety with frequent disinfecting of the entire space, installation of air purifiers, hand sanitizer provided, temperature checks at the door and limiting capacity, among other measures. At the moment, Korea has almost no restrictions on visitors from other countries but the reverse isn't true, so that may be an issue until the end of spring. We believe this could last for a while though and are preparing for the long haul.In terms of cancellations, about 80 percent of February, 100 percent of March and 80 percent of April bookings have been cancelled. Not only international artists such as John Talabot, Anastasia Kristensen, Cleveland or Batu, but also amazingly talented artists from Asia who we were really excited to work with. It was of course very upsetting but we quickly decided to stop worrying too much and simply focus on the local scene, with more gigs for our residents, regulars and new people.It's obviously not optimal on the financial side as turnout has been lower, but we are nonetheless blessed with a steady group of ravers that come to support as much as they can and are helping us go through this crisis. We felt the mood rebound during the past week but now that the West is seeing exponential growth with the virus, we assume people will remain vigilant about social activities for, at least, the next four to six weeks.Our club has been officially closed since January 19th. That's long, but since things seem to be slowly but steadily clearing up, we hope to reopen in May depending on how many cases Beijing has by then. We are now completely out of any income, which is a super heavy burden for small independent clubs. Unfortunately there is no financial support system from the state, which makes it almost impossible to keep us alive. We haven't been able to pay our staff, we can't afford rent anymore. I have thought about doing a fundraiser and I'm eager to set something up that can potentially save us, but it's difficult since everyone seems to be hit now. Beijing is and has been very depressing in the last few months. Everything is shut down, everyone is under some sort of self-quarantine or in actual quarantine. This is definitely the hardest time we've ever been through.

The festival

So many people are affected and confused here. With fast-changing information, I guess lots of people don't even know what to do. Everyone is just worried about where it goes from here. It is really tough, but it is what it is. I visited the bank and Japan Finance Corporation for advice. Not only myself but people in all the industries seem to be struggling. Seeing that exchange and financial markets getting disrupted, I feel like things are going to be much worse than the 2008 financial crisis. We see fewer people in town. There's no doubt that this unforeseen situation is afflicting society, both financially and mentally. I hope things will be getting better gradually in Japan, but in the time of a global pandemic, it can't be said to be resolved even if the outbreak settles down in your country. We really need to help each other. I have even started feeling like this will become a springboard that leads to change the world dramatically.

The DJ and promoter

Our home, Trauma Bar Und Kino, announced this week that the venue will be closed until the end of the month and our first event of the year has been postponed. The cancellation affects all of the artists who were booked to perform at our event, all of whom were relying on their fees, as well as the venue and all the staff who have lost their work shifts. The spread of the coronavirus will have very heavy consequences at all levels of the economy and it will impact our industry especially hard. As always, the poorer and more marginalised people in our scene will be the ones suffering the most.It's impacting my ability to financially survive as I currently only rely on DJ gigs, panel discussions and workshops for a living. My situation was already precarious before, living from gig to gig, paycheck after paycheck like many other artists. All my gigs are now getting cancelled. I was scheduled to go on my first Asian tour by the end of April but it probably won't happen. Four of my scheduled gigs are in China. Cancelling my tour means forfeiting my international flights, paid at my own expense and non-refundable, as well as losing income on the seven gigs scheduled across Asia. I don't know if my tour in the US at the end of June will be possible by now, or if i'll be able to perform any of my upcoming gigs.I think people [in Berlin] are just starting to realise that what is happening is extremely serious, and they're just beginning to think of the consequences for our scene. Artists are—with good reason—very worried about being able to survive financially. This particularly affects smaller, marginalised artists on the fringes who rely on gigs to survive. As venues in Berlin are already announcing closures, a lot of dance clubs won't be able to carry the financial burden of closing for even a few weeks, and they will probably close down. Record stores might also close down as people self-isolate, and so on. The whole economy will be badly affected.We also have to think about the psychological consequences for people who are already suffering from mental illness, depression and anxiety (which includes many people in nightlife as well as in the communities we serve) and how isolation may worsen their mental health.I think it's important to call on all event promoters to take responsibility and cancel public events NOW. There is now concrete evidence that there is nothing to do to stop the virus, but we can try to slow it down by social distancing, which can make a huge difference in the ability of local public health systems to respond to the coronavirus. If we don't try to slow down the propagation now, the medical infrastructure will be overwhelmed and won't be able to handle this crisis. We can look at what's going on in Italy right now and try to learn from their experiences to help prevent other countries from going through the same catastrophe.It is upsetting and a difficult decision to cancel an event and there are financial consequences that we shouldn't downplay, but it is also our civic duty to all do our best to slow down the propagation of the coronavirus and to protect the people who are most at risk in our society.Seeing festivals and large-scale events going ahead this weekend in the UK is an example of shocking irresponsibility, despite all the reliable information available urging quick and drastic action. I have also seen events deleting people's valid concerns about public health on their Facebook event page. Not cancelling events at this point will only accelerate the spread of the virus and create more cancellations with financial consequences in the long-term.The next months are going to be very tough and we will need to have each other's backs and support people who are most at risk in our scene. We will need to be creative and come up with new ideas and solutions for our industry and community. From our perspective in Berlin, we hope that the German government will support the venues, artists and anyone else who needs it, as they cope with the disastrous consequences of the virus. Community support and care will be essential!