Lewis Capaldi has teamed up with mental health charity Mind to provide support workers, gig buddies, and an ‘escape room’ at his upcoming UK arena shows. The scheme aims to helps concert attendees manage anxiety and panic attacks, and each ticket sold will come with a 50p (91 cents) charge to fund support teams at every venue.
“[I] know that a lot of you for one reason or another might find shows difficult whether it’s anxiety or panic. I want to make sure that as many of you who feel that have the support to come down,” Capaldi said on Twitter.
“I hate to feel that anyone’s anxiety is making them miss out on anything they want to do.”
The initiative is called LiveLive, and centres on providing support in the lead up to and during Capaldi’s gigs – even setting up a buddy system for those travelling alone. Capaldi told the BBC that the concept of LiveLive was inspired by his own experience with anxiety and panic attacks.
“I’ve had a couple on stage, there was this instance where we were supporting Bastille in Manchester and I had to stop on my second-to-last song.
“I had to let everyone know, ‘I’m really sorry, I’m having a panic attack, I need to stop’.”
Capaldi said that he is confident LiveLive will be a successful scheme, and hopes to see it implemented by other artists in the future.
