Events 4 Covid-19, an initiative that connected event industry resources to those on the Covid-19 frontline across the north of England for the last 14 weeks, has now concluded after helping to support 177,000 individuals.

Events 4 Covid-19 North West began after the Covid-19 pandemic caused thousands of suppliers, service providers and freelancers to lose work due to cancelled events. In response to this, a network of event organisers and suppliers was in the north west was created to pool resources and work together.

The group was started in March by Nelson Beaumont-Laurencia of CityCo and Robert Masterson of Mustard Media.

The Events 4 Covid-19 group is made of over 200 event industry suppliers who have access to generators, catering equipment, furniture, comms equipment, tents and marquees, outdoor and indoor audio equipment, outdoor and indoor lighting, transport, staging equipment, medical and ambulances, heating equipment, venue dressing and many other items.

The group also provided services including security, cleaning, medical, AV engineers, traffic management, project management, networks of freelancers, transportation and volunteer management as well as many other services during the pandemic. The initiative was run by 23 volunteers who managed all the projects and requests coming in every day.

The network assisted with requests from the NHS, local government, charities and other organisations that needed support during the pandemic.

Among the projects the Events 4 Covid 19 team carried out were Songs 4 Smiles, which provided outdoor entertainment for care homes and assisted living premises; Fuel 4 The Frontline, which hand delivered care packages to support the frontline workers during their long shifts; and Havens 4 Heroes, which transformed existing spaces into mindful and stimulating sanctuaries for frontline workers.

A spokesperson from Open Kitchen MCR, Manchester said: “Thank you for all the help and support we have received from Events 4 Covid-19, your assistance and the support you have given us helped us feed 119,000 vulnerable people and the numbers are still growing, we really couldn’t have done that without you.”

Co-founder of Events for Covid-19, Nelson Beaumont-Laurencia of CityCo, said: “What we have been able to achieve in the last few months is unbelievable – we are very thankful to everyone that has been involved, as without them this wouldn’t have been possible. This is a great example of the events industry coming together in a moment of crisis to assist the organisations that needed it the most. We have created an invaluable supporting network and community through this, and even though Events 4 Covid-19 concludes, we will still remain for any crisis support in the future.”