Music fans have been waiting with a vengeance when live music venues hit hard by the pandemic will return. The answer may surprise you and may not be so far-fetched with the vaccine roll-outs now underway.
Stereogum.com and The New York Times reports that Dr. Anthony Fauci, America’s official go-to authority on the pandemic, says live music venues may be safe to return to “business as usual” this fall 2021; although he was vague about the specific timelines. This is great news for music fans around the country. He had a virtual conference held by the Association of Performing Arts Professionals this past weekend with people in the performing arts field and confirmed that it will take vaccinating between 70-85% of the population bringing us to herd immunity with very few restrictions.
The conference usually draws thousands of attendees and features hundreds of live performances but was moved virtually due to the pandemic.
There are conflicting reports on when we’ll finally reach “herd immunity.” With infection rates continually climbing; we’re definitely not out of the woods yet. It’s, unfortunately, going back to the way it was in March 2020 because of people letting their guard down during the holidays. I don’t see how we can possibly pull out of this mess that quickly.
This YouTube video lays out the timeline on when music venues and stadiums could reopen:
Live music venues were unfairly targeted economically by the pandemic like other industries. Performers could not perform and venues were losing money. Fortunately, that’s all about to change come this fall. It all depends on how quickly the vaccines will be distributed to US citizens. It started out slow, but it’s supposed to pick up; bringing most businesses back to normal but will still prove to be a slow and steady process.
Dr. Fauci issued this statement:
“If everything goes right, this will occur sometime in the fall of 2021,” Dr. Fauci explained, “so that by the time we get to the early to mid-fall, you can have people feeling safe performing onstage as well as people in the audience.”
Let’s hope live music fans will get their wish and concerts will return once again.