A kaleidoscopic butterfly on a large white flag had adorned the Bira Biro Festival venue at Ghion Hotel for three consecutive years since 2017. The music event, named after the Amharic word for "butterfly," runs from midday to midnight with thousands in attendance at the lush gardens of the Hotel, which opened its doors in the early 1950s. Local and international musicians perform surrounded by 3D projection lights that come alive at night. For Guta Wakuma, managing director of Choo Choo Promotions, the company behind the event, it was the realisation of a dream.

"I love music. That's why I ventured into this business," he said. "I wanted to create a platform where musicians can get a bigger stage; where people can see international artists at home."

The event business had not been without its challenges even before the advent of the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19). Unrest in the country has led to events being cancelled overnight. Months of preparation can be rescinded without a day's notice, leaving organisers to deal with the aftereffects of cancellations. But nothing could have prepared Guta and others in the industry for what the pandemic brought.

"I really thought my event organising days were over," he said. "There was no sense of direction, and we didn't know when it would be over."

As time progressed, he shifted the company's platform online, streaming some web and television events. Managing artists and producing their albums kept him busy in an otherwise quiet and boring time. Persistence, however, has paid off for his team, as the passing of time brought with it a slackening of measures in regard to the pandemic. Now, events are underway, albeit at half capacity.

"We're working with sponsors on how to execute the events safely," he said. "We have to find new ways to move forward."

The industry needs to be versatile, added Guta, and operate with many platforms. The freeze on events had not only impacted event organisers but almost everyone in the industry. Kolya Manufacturing, an optical disc manufacturing firm, had also seen its fair share of struggles before the pandemic.

The wide use of digital spheres for getting music was threatening the survival of selling CDs, according to the company's shareholder and former CEO, Yared Ademe.

"Online music platforms and messaging apps had made music readily available to users," he said.

Blockades due to unrest made the distribution of CDs to the other regions of the country impossible. On top of this, the company, which operates with 32 employees, came to a standstill following the pandemic. Musicians stopped releasing new music, events were banned, and it had seemed like their CD selling days had really come to an end. In brighter times, the company was selling up to 300,000 CDs for local artists like Teddy Afro and Abiy Lakew.

"Music isn't an essential business," he said. "That is why it was the first to go."

The business outlook in the country rarely factors in future possibilities; it takes things for granted, according to him. As one solution to the crisis, Kolya Manufacturing partnered with Efanos, publishers of educational books and materials in the country. With the closure of schools and students expected to continue their education from their homes, publishing CDs with educational content served another purpose. It had found a lifeline as a result of the pandemic itself.

The very lifeline that had provided the company with another shot in the market is the reason Emeshaw Kefalegn, a teacher in Mezezo Elementary School in Mezezo Wereda, Amhara Regional State, spent the past eight months at home. He served 19 years as a teacher, going between his hometown in Mezezo and a few years in northern Gonder. Teaching for as long as he did means he has seen his fair share of ups and downs.

Describing notable hardships from his teaching years, Emeshaw mentioned famine in the Gonder area and the consequential student dropouts. Another has been the migration of students to Arab countries where many would journey to find better-paying jobs. Despite that, he maintains that this year has still been the hardest since he started a career in this field.

"There was a sense of hopelessness," he said. "When we heard about the devastating effects [of the pandemic] in developed countries, we were terrified to think of what would happen here."

Staying at home at all times was difficult, but it was spent drinking coffee, reading books and talking with his family of four.

"My children were reading books most of the time," he said. "I spent a lot of money on books this year."

In November, the Ministry of Education announced that schools were to be reopened with precautionary steps. He joined teachers at the schools in preparing water taps for washing and disbursing reusable masks to the students.

Though there have been no positive cases in their surrounding area, Emeshaw does not believe that the worst is over yet. He worries about his daughter, who is scheduled to return to school far from home, and the news of recent sanctions regarding the second wave of the pandemic in the media.

"We have to follow what the health professionals are asking and hope for the best," he said.