00:00Liverpool is serving as the venue for the annual Nighttime Economy Summit organised by the Nighttime Industries Association.
00:07More than 250 speakers and around 2,000 delegates have been in attendance from over 40 countries.
00:14It's great for us to all get together and it's great to get, you know, we've got 2,000 people
00:18coming and it's going to be good for the city as well because everyone's going to be enjoying our beautiful
00:24city, seeing the sights.
00:27We've got a lot of hotels and apartments full because of this conference.
00:33So it's important for us and it's important for our industry as well at this moment.
00:38Cultural contributors range from DJs and producers to band members and grassroots venue operators.
00:44Two sector reports have been launched examining electronic music, employment, exports and venue sustainability as well as wider opportunities and
00:52challenges facing the Nighttime Economy.
00:55If you inadvertently, either by sleepwalking into it or by accidentally doing it or hopefully not purposefully damaging hospitality or
01:05basically damaging it to a point of no return,
01:09then you are actually endangering that the very essence of what makes Liverpool is Liverpool is not going to be
01:16there anymore.
01:16Policy, planning, safety, transport and workforce issues have been topics of discussion and encourage partnership between government, local authorities, industry
01:25and communities to support sustainable activity after dark.
01:29We've had the business rates, we've had national insurance, wages, hikes, you know, we've got nightclubs closing by the minute,
01:38bars closing by the minute.
01:39It's so important that we keep this industry going.
01:43For mental health, you know, people getting out meeting people, a lot of the kids now, they're living off the
01:48phone, so we need that social thing where you're going out meeting people, having a good time.
01:53At events like this, it gets everyone together and it's putting the pressure on the government to basically help our
02:02industry out as much as they can.
02:05Delegates are also discussing technology inclusion and the protection of grassroots venues across the region and beyond.
02:13Grassroots venues are at the heart of a city, of a music city. If you don't have small venues that
02:18are run by people who understand music and passions about music, there's nowhere for young artists to start, nowhere for
02:25young promoters to start.
02:26And it's where everyone gets, and audiences, it's where audiences discover, they look like, find the beauty of live music,
02:33discover new artists and, you know, follow them throughout their careers.
02:36If we keep chipping away at it nationally and locally and kill it, then you cannot bring it back. So
02:42we have got to stop now. We have got to stop measures that hurt our industry.
02:48We need to stop now because we have crossed the threshold. There might have been a time in the past
02:53where people were saying that the going is getting hard, but there was still some meat on the bone. We
02:58are down to the bone now.
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