Turns out the difference between making a tent for a festival like Coachella and a festival for medical triage isn't all too different. According to Consequence of Sound, production companies Choura Events and Gallagher Staging have switched gears to start making tents and protective gear for medical workers.
“We pivoted so fast to being a rapid-response disaster relief team. If I didn’t know how to do Coachella, I couldn’t do this hospital,” Choura Events founder Ryan Choura at the Fountain Valley Regional Medical Center told the Times. “I saw patients coming in here and saw what they looked like. This is real, and we’ve got to move.”
“We deal with an industry where if we’re not fixing things ahead of the curve, the concert’s not happening. So we figured we had a lot to offer in this emergency,” said Robin Shaw, co-founder of the LA- and Chicago-based Upstaging. The firm usually constructs stages for Post Malone, Billie Eilish, Pearl Jam, and Roger Waters, but now they’re building face shields and room dividers. “We started looking at what the immediate need was and we’ve been making face shields for two weeks,” she added. “Our shop makes metal for sets and we can build just about anything.”
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has thus far affected more than 839,000 people and caused at least 41,343 deaths. As hospitals and medical workers become overwhelmed, it'll be great for people like Choura and Shaw to help any way they can.
Read the full article here.
