I’d hate to be the bearer of bad news on a Monday morning, but for the concert industry it’s likely going to be a long time before we return to normal. In a new article published at New York Times Magazine, five leading health experts weigh in and dance around some of the current ethical quandaries facing our nation as the coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak stretches across the globe, and one part in particular is really standing out and hitting hard this morning…
Larger gatherings — conferences, concerts, sporting events — when people say they’re going to reschedule this conference or graduation event for October 2020, I have no idea how they think that’s a plausible possibility. I think those things will be the last to return. Realistically we’re talking fall 2021 at the earliest.
The quote was from Zeke Emanuel from the University of Pennsylvania and it lays out a grim and harsh reality for what coronavirus is going to do to us music fans. In short, we’re going to be stuck in socially distant settings for a long time, so all those announcements you see from bands and festivals pushing out dates and hoping people will move their summer plans to fall just likely won’t be happening if this opinion is to be believed.
I’m hoping that isn’t the case, and I have fingers and toes fully crossed at this point that we can speed up a return to normalcy, especially for us that love to see music live and love the concert industry deeply.
