Australian electronic duo Peking Duk have taken to Facebook to question the priorities of state governments in the wake of Brisbane’s heavily-attended State of Origin match, while live music events remain events which can only continue in restricted capacity.
The group noted the level of hypocrisy last night, pointing out that while outdoor music festivals of above 1,500 people are currently unable to take place, the Queensland state government deemed it appropriate for 50,000 people to attend Suncorp Stadium last month without social distancing, masks, or contact tracing.
“Is there a magical reason that differentiates how covid is spread between rugby fans and music fans?” the pair asked. “Why is there a huge discrepancy in the allowed capacities with or without a covid plan?
“We feel heartbroken for the behind the scenes crew who have lost any work before Christmas and are now left with nothing. We feel devastated for event organisers who have spent months organising these events only to have the goalposts changed due to decisions based not off fact but by fear.
“We feel saddened for the fans of music who had something to look forward to after a pretty tumultuous year and now are left with little excitement to be happy about.”
50,000
is the amount of people who attended a state of origin match at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane. 50,000 humans, no…Posted by Peking Duk on Tuesday, 1 December 2020
Peking Duk were one of the many artists who were immediately affected by COVID-19-related restrictions, with the pair originally having been perform at the Melbourne Grand Prix on March 14th. Unfortunately, the previous day brought with it mass cancellations and restrictions on gatherings – effectively spelling the end of the live music sector for a number of months.
“These are tough times, these are super tough times,” Peking Duk wrote at the time. “Not only does that mean shows are cancelled, it also means the humans involved in putting on these shows lose work too. For how long? We do not know.
“The sound engineers, the lighting operators, the photographers, the security at the events, the bar tenders the ever growing list of people affected directly by cancellations of events. The same humans who banded together just last month and donated time and effort into raising millions for fire relief – All out of work for the foreseeable future.”
Since then, the pair have been advocates for sensible behaviour from Australians, even going so far as to release a shirt with the slogan “Stay The Fuck Home” printed upon it. Meanwhile, the group were also able to raise over $20,000, which was donated to Support Act in an effort to help aid those affected by the music industry shutdowns.
Despite their efforts and their eagerness to see live music events return to Australia on a large scale, Peking Duk admit they’re not experts on the subject, but rather would prefer to see a level of consistency when it comes to highly-populated sporting events and music festivals.
“We are the furthest thing from being epidemiologists,” the pair concluded on their Facebook post. “We are all for lockdowns when lockdowns are needed, we are all for social distancing, we are all for isolation when theres a spread and we absolutely love rugby but we can only scratch our heads at why music is being treated differently to an event like rugby which has many parallels and similarities and many, many more patrons.”
