This report is one of the final outcomes of the project initiated by and carried out for the European social partners in the live performance sector. The focus is on five European countries: Czechia, Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia and Poland.

The project and the report aim to:

• Describe the commercial live performance sector;
• Assess the state of social dialogue in the sector;
• Suggest ways for promoting and fostering social dialogue.

For the purpose of this study the commercial live performance sector is understood to cover a wide range of performances delivered in the physical presence of an audience, both for-profit and not for-profit, fully or partially independent of public funding. It involves in particular theatre, music, dance, circus and other stage productions performed in specialised venues, in public spaces, in venues frequented by tourists, etc. Public-sector entities are excluded from the analysis. However, initiatives partly subsidised by public funds are covered, insofar as they do not fully rely on public funding and remain operationally independent of the public sector as regards e.g. management decisions and applications for funding.