After nearly two years of cancellations and strict COVID-19 restrictions, major events are starting to trickle back to WA, but Perth's event industry says not enough is being done to help local operators recover.
When the pandemic first struck in 2020 and borders were slammed shut, events and entertainment businesses were among the first to be hit.
Then the WA government decided to impose strict restrictions over the New Year's period, resulting in a loss of more than $26.5 million after 250 events had to be cancelled.
Months on from WA's border reopening and weeks since the removal of most COVID restrictions, major events are starting to return to the once 'hermit state'.
Later this month, the second State of Origin game will be heading to Perth Stadium for the first time since 2019 and is expected to bring around 11,000 interstate visitors.
The stadium will also host Perth's Festival of International Football in July, with Premier League club Manchester United taking on Aston Villa in one of the fixtures.
There was hope the border reopening in March and the easing of rules would also revive local businesses, but those in the events industry continue to struggle.
Mega Vision is one of the state's leading audio-visual providers and production companies, and caters for events ranging from small parties to large festivals.
Mr Georgiou said the ripple effect from cancellations around Christmas and the border backflip in February were still ongoing and he expected more recognition from the state government.
"We're not going to see some things until summer comes around but it's not going to be on the scale that it had been before," he said.
'Screaming for help for two years'
Mr Georgiou said he was tired of the events industry being grouped with tourism and sports, and not being given the appreciation it deserves.
"What the government doesn't understand is that we are the festivals, we are the council shows, we are the concerts, we are the weekend markets, we are the community shows, we are all those things classed as events, and they're not giving us support," he said.
"If something is to happen, if there's a fire or flood or a catastrophe, who's the first industry they come to for help? They come to us and say 'please put on a free concert to assist everybody' or 'please put on something to raise money for these flood or fire victims', and we've done that.
"But now we're the ones that are screaming for help and have been for two years and we haven't been getting it.
"The industry is hurting … and they have to do more to help us survive."
Mr Georgiou said revenue had dropped 80 per cent on pre-pandemic levels, and those in the industry had been forced to sell off equipment and cut staff to get through.
Grants processes costly, complicated
Since the start of the pandemic, the state government said it had injected close to $1.7 billion towards business assistance, including grants for those impacted by restrictions.
Mr Georgiou said he had waited four months for his claim to be approved, and while he was grateful for some support, it was "nowhere near enough".
"The grants are one-off, and the cancellations happen weekly for months and months and months," he said.
Mr Georgiou said he would prefer to see the government provide cost-cutting exemptions for businesses like his.
"We've all got vehicles, trucks, vans, carnival rides, food trucks that have been sitting in warehouses for a couple of years now, not doing a lot. But we're having to pay the registration, we're having to keep everything maintained, we're having to pay all the certificates and so forth," he said.
The vice president of WA's Events Industry Association (EIA), Blake Williams, said some businesses had missed out on the grants due to the costly application process.
"So many event suppliers said to me, 'it's going to cost us more money in accounting fees to get these grants than the grants are going to pay us,'" he said.
"We've explained that thresholds for grants are too hard, and the numbers are too low … we work in a gig-to-gig economy and that hasn't been taken into account when these grants had been administered."
'Large flashy events' fail to hide suffering
Mr Williams, who runs his own entertainment agency, said he had to cancel around $30,000 worth of gigs during New Year's Eve and had only received $800 in compensation.
"As an industry, we're disappointed in the way that we've been treated a little bit," he said.
"We've continually asked for conversation, and we've said from the very start, give us a seat at the table and we'll talk through these issues, we'll make sure the industry is healthy, and we'll do it together."
But the EIA believes more focus has been placed on events coming from interstate or overseas, rather than local ones.
"It's great that we have these large events like State of Origin because it's a massive cash injection into the state, but it shouldn't be assumed that because we have a large flashy event that our local industry is not suffering," Mr Williams said.
"It's important that people understand that whilst those big events are happening, it's the local people that have been here through the pandemic that are still really doing it tough.
"We need to support the local industry, those local actors, musicians, dancers [and] technical people who have been here through it all, holding it down to feed their families … it's time to inject some money into the local industry as well."
Industry chasing lost confidence
Local businessman Jamie Mercanti who runs an entertainment agency, said the perception the industry was starting to bounce back because big shows were returning was not reality.
"The time when these shutdowns occurred, everybody in the entertainment industry understood the rules and went along with what was requested from them without question.
"But now the government needs to be doing a whole lot more because these businesses are active 52 weeks a year … it's not just a special event like the upcoming State of Origin game or the Manchester United game."
In a brief statement, the state government said it had done everything it could to "help protect WA businesses, local jobs and the economy from the full brunt of COVID-19".
"We've now passed the peak which is pleasing. WA's unemployment rate remains the lowest in the country and WA's economy remains strong – leading the nation," the statement said.
"Western Australians can have confidence to continue to support WA businesses and events."
But Mr Mercanti said it was up to the government to regain the public's trust in the sector after months of uncertainty and backflips.
"No-one has confidence to put anything on or even start planning anything," he said.
