Tag: COVID-19

Concerts Are Back!(?)

The Vienna Philharmonic gave its first concert since March 10 earlier this week, and it looked like a real blast:

Thanks to COVID-19, only 100 people were allowed into the almost-3,000-seat Musikverein. Concertgoers needed to enter with a mask on, but they were allowed to take it off once they were seated (which makes me wonder if Viennese officials know what hole the virus comes out of when we breathe). Concertgoers sat alone–families and households weren’t allowed to clump together–and there was no intermission. Get it, sit down, get out, hope you don’t die.

On the German side of the border, the State Theater of Hesse in Wiesbaden (it’s by Frankfurt, I guess) hosted baritone Guenther Groissboeck, who performed for 200 people in the 1,000-seat hall on May 18. People had to wear face masks and provide their contact information beforehand, but they could sit together in groups.

Here in the United States, on the same night as Groissboeck’s recital, Travis McCready gave a socially distanced concert to around the same number of people in Fort Smith, Arkansas. The US has almost 30% of the world’s confirmed COVID-19 cases, the most of any country.

To prepare for the McCready concert, according to Digital Music News, staff at Temple Live sprayed the venue with “sanitizing mist.” People had to wear masks and drink out of closed containers. How they drank with their masks on, DMN did not say.

A Canadian survey showed that 21% of live-music fans would “probably never” feel comfortable in a traditional concert environment, and the vast majority of people have said they’ll wait until a vaccine arrives before returning. As a COVID-19-safe alternative, presenters and promoters are turning to so-called drive-in concerts. Keith Urban and Alan Jackson performed shows at drive-in theaters in Tennessee and Alabama, respectively, and Garth Brooks’s upcoming concert will be re-broadcast to 300 drive-in theaters around the country. Mark Rebillet is in the middle of an eight-city drive-in tour.

The idea behind drive-in concerts is that your car could provide an almost impervious layer of protection between you and the outside, germ-spreading world. But what would you do if you wanted to get out, spread your legs, enjoy the night air? You could walk around wearing this:

This is the Micrashell protective suit, “specifically designed to satisfy the needs of nightlife, live events and entertainment industries,” according to its makers. It’s got an N 95 filtration system in its helmet and a special system that allows you to drink and vape (I’m not sure if you can do them at the same time; that’d be cool, though). Because the suit is “top only,” users can wear their normal street clothes–because you don’t want to look conspicuous in the club–and easily “engage in intercourse without being exposed to respiratory risks.”

We all know we’re living a nightmare, right?

The Slow, Tentative Return of Audiences after COVID-19

Data is coming in, giving us a picture of what audiences will look like when cultural organizations open up after COVID-19: in short, they’ll be small and nervous. Shugoll Research released its study of Washington, DC, theatergoers back in April, and earlier this week they released their national version. With only 36% of respondents saying they are very likely to return to theaters, and with 63% expecting to wait three months to a year before they venture out, Shugoll predicts that we will see a slow “trickle back” to theaters. Less than half of frequent attendees say they will return in the coming season, and 57% of those will wait “a few months”; 45% of the over-55 crowd say they’ll wait six months to return. Only 21% of them identify themselves as likely to return at all.On the same day Shugoll Research released their national survey results, Colleen Dilenschneider posted the latest on her ongoing COVID-19 audience study. While interest in attending something within the next three months has been growing, most people are still more likely to stay home for at least a year. (UPDATE: In her May 18 post, Dilenschneider notes that the three-month intention to return are at the same value now as they were this time last year, and one-month intentions are “rapidly recovering.”) When Dilenschneider asked people what would make them feel safe and comfortable in a cultural venue, 85% said having a COVID-19 vaccine; 65% said the lifting of restrictions. Sixty-four percent of Shugoll survey participants saying they’d come back if there was a vaccine, and 50% want to see increased cleaning and disinfecting.It’s frustrating to know that a lot of the things needed to attract audiences are out of one’s control (cultural organizations can’t simply order up a vaccine or lift government stay-at-home orders). It’s also concerning that audiences don’t want to make a move until other attendees get out there to test the safety of the environment first (61% percent of Dilenschneider’s subjects said seeing others visit would encourage them to return). It’s clear that, based on what we know now, this will be a very gradual, hesitant, fear-ridden trickle back.

 Outside the High-Culture World Audiences Are More Brazen

The return may be a little less tentative, however, for venues and presenters outside the realm of high culture. When Enigma Research surveyed 2,000 Americans and Canadians who had attended a broader range of “live sports events, festivals, fairs, shows, or conferences within the last 24 months,” they found, on the other hand, that 76% are likely to return, and 48% are ready to attend a public event within one to two weeks of things opening up. Live Nation’s recent international survey of their customers showed that 91% are likely to attend a live music event post-COVID-19.While the majority of respondents to all four of these surveys want to see increased cleaning and disinfecting of venues, Live Nation and Enigma results show that their people are cold to additional measures that might affect the event experience. Only 21% of Live Nation respondents would attend an event if required to wear a mask, and 27% of Enigma respondents showed reluctance to wear a mask. In the Shugoll and Dilenschneider surveys, a vaccine is a prerequisite to returning for most (65% and 85%, respectively), but only 18% Enigma respondents need to have a vaccine to attend events again.The reason for the differences in attitudes could be attributed to age  (high-culture attendees tend to be above 55, a vulnerable group), politics, or may even speak to the differences in behavior expected at events (I may not care if I have a mask at a chamber music performance, but at a rock concert, I might not want to scream my appreciation through a screen of cotton). It will be interesting to see how attitudes of fans of different activities continue to diverge, or converge, over time.