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Concerts in the corona age

Nearly every music festival and concert scheduled this summer has been canceled, including the “Hella Mega Tour” headlined by Fall Out Boy, Green Day and Weezer; Kesha’s “High Road” tour; Hangout Musical Festival; and, most recently, Riot Fest.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, many at-home concerts have been held through live-streaming. . 

The company behind Hangout Musical Festival hosted “Hang From Home,” which included live performances from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, among others. Warner Music hosted a three-day event where they aired past performances from artists on the label, including Cardi B, Ed Sheeran, Bruno Mars, Panic! At The Disco, Coldplay, Lil Uzi Vert, Paramore, Death Cab for Cutie, Twenty One Pilots, David Guetta, Charlie Puth and Wiz Khalifa.

But what about the concerts already scheduled for this summer? 

Many artists have already offered full cash refunds to fans who purchased tickets for their 2020 concerts. Other festivals, like Firefly music festival and Bonnaroo, offered fans an option to roll over their ticket to the 2021 festival. 

Riot Fest, most notably, has gone to great lengths to ensure fans return. In 2021, they will be extending their concert into Thursday for fans who bought prior to July 16, 2020. According to its website, the Thursday show will include “bucket-list bands” and the opportunity to get first dibs on merch.

As restaurants and other venues open back up with restrictions, it will be interesting to see tmpacts of social distancing regulations on concert atmospheres. While many are holding out hope that COVID-19 will be a distant memory by that point, forthcoming waves of the virus may still impact large social gatherings well into 2021. 

Wearing face masks to concerts may be an option, but maintaining six-feet between attendees seems unlikely. You can’t have a mosh pit where no one is touching.

Although we may see another round of concert cancellations and postponements next year, the live music scene will return eventually, and hopefully, everyone’s favorite artists will be back with a new album or a few singles to show for their time in quarantine.

 

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