Picnic Covid 19 Support Fundraiser

Hi my name is Carly Roberts. I'm a woman who's had the privilege of music saving my life - time and time again - and have in turn
committed my life to create platforms for other people to experience the same.

In short, I’m the owner and director of Picnic Touring + Events, a 13year strong Sydney-based creative institution committed to keeping Sydney's underground dance community and Australian touring networks thriving against all odds.

Like many others, the last 16months have had a pretty horrendous impact on our ability to do our job and create opportunities for our creative communities. Which has been particularly hard coming off the back of the Sydney Lock Outs. 

Due to a questionable Covid 19 Vaccine roll out in Australia we're again at the mercy of local government imposed lockdowns and border closures - with events being cancelled, postponed or put on last minute and the industry as a whole often being impacted for the longest while cases are traced and bought back to zero. It's not sustainable. The continual stop / starts and having zero ability to plan for or forecast the future is putting a gigantic strain on our industry and those in it. 

Like many people in events by July 9th Picnic will have been on zero income for 4 out of the last seven weeks; with no more Job Keeper or government support. The bills don't stop and the stress is becoming very compounded. 

Picnic has been very fortunate to receive some fantastic government grants - that literally saved our company - and created many first gigs for many artists from Sydney, interstate, and even some international acts. Those grants did create work for us; but their main purpose was for us to facilitate jobs for other creatives, industries associated with events, and revenue for the venues we work with. Our service to the community has been our number one priority.

We understand that nearly everyone is struggling at the moment, and to be honest, a few months ago we probably wouldn't have gone with the fundraising aspect of this United We Stream broadcast of our Picnic One Night Stand 10th Birthday  - but with Sydney in lockdown
again and the uncertainty of our future back at an all-time high we've decided to reach out for support if you can afford it.

All funds raised will go directly back into maintaining the viability of Sydney, Australia's and the rest of the world's music and creative
communities and will continue to drive our love of sharing music and our belief in its power to heal; which we believe is more important than ever right now - no matter the challenges.

We'll be sharing 50% of all funds raised with Tokyo Sing Song who are now closed again indefinitely due to Covid-19 restrictions in place.
Those funds will be directly put back into the venue we now call home every weekend helping to sustain it's future. 

Thank you to everyone who has supported us so far; we'd be nothing without you.