Luton events firm protests to save the arts sector after Covid-19 wreaks havoc

Creative8 on Sedgewick Road has been established for over 10 years and specialises in creating stands at events, but its trade was immediately halted in March 2020 due to Covid-19.

At 8pm on Wednesday, the company protested the lack of government support for the arts by lighting up its building in red.

Alexandra Bailey, managing co-director, said: "This has been an incredibly challenging time for our industry and our business, we desperately want to remain open and keep trading.

"As the government has now told us our industry is not viable and won’t re-open until March 2021, we are calling for immediate help and assistance.

"I am so incredibly grateful for my resourceful and resilient team."

UK arts events such as exhibitions are not permitted to take place until March 2021 at the earliest and Creative8 states the future "looks bleak" for the sector, which employs 600,000 people across the UK.

The exhibitions sector alone supports 114,000 of those jobs.

It was anticipated 45% of the exhibitions sector workforce would be made redundant if businesses remained closed by October 1, but this has now increased to 80% redundancies based on the new March 2021 estimate.

Bosses fear this could lead to a loss of some 90,000 jobs in the exhibitions sector alone.