Fiche 1. What is a live performance?

  • Theater

The regulations apply to the live performance, that is to say to "the entrepreneurs of live performances who, with a view to the public representation of a work of the mind, ensure the physical presence of at least one performing artist receiving remuneration" (Article L. 7122-1 of the Labour Code). As regards performing artists, reference should be made to the provisions of the Intellectual Property Code (Article L212-1 et seq.) and the Labour Code (Article L7121-1 et seq., which, among other things, establish a presumption of the artist’s wage). Are excluded from the scope of the ordinance: sports shows (sport falls under the code of sport and sports associations or federations), bullfights, recorded shows, games, organization of fashion shows, guided tours or theatrical meals. 

How do I know if my activity is live entertainment? Am I concerned by the regulations on live entertainment entrepreneurs?

I organize an event, there will be music, audience, maybe storytelling or dance....

Or... I’m throwing a little birthday party for my kids, and I’m planning to bring in a clown...

Or, I am responsible for an amateur choir and we give a few performances a year, sometimes with a professional conductor.... 

Or I’m thinking of setting up a theatre company, but the first few years we’ll only do one or two shows...

Or I’m responsible in a town hall that operates a municipal theatre...

Or I’m a producer of shows but I don’t know if I’m also a broadcaster...

Or I rent a place where shows are played, but I rent it completely empty...
 

I am a live entertainment entrepreneur if the performances meet the following characteristics:

  • they will take place in the presence of an audience According to the regulations relating to establishments receiving visitors, the public is constituted by external persons admitted to a place – regardless of whether the access is free, free, restricted or by invitation. 
    Examples: a company not open to the public, but only to the staff, is not an establishment receiving from the public; the participants in a game are players and not spectators, just as the participants in a cult are practitioners and not spectators.
  • there will be performers physically present (dancers, musicians, circassians, actors, etc...); the projection of a film in open-air cinema is therefore not a living spectacle;
  • these will interpret a work of the mind, within the meaning of the Intellectual Property Code: in general, if a copyright declaration is made, it will be considered as a live performance. 
    Examples: a disc jockey who plays one record after another in a discotheque is not a performing artist, unlike the one who creates from the turntables; an actor who makes a political speech in a meeting is not a performing artist for this performance; a librarian who reads for children in a media library does not perform live, whereas the interpretation of a literary text by a solo actor is a live performance; an internship, a workshop, a coaching session, training is not live entertainment, even if the trainers or coaches are also performing artists.
  • these artists will be paid. It should be noted that the labour code establishes a presumption of salary for performing artists.