The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival's planned return for April 2021 has been canceled due to the pandemic, LA Times reports the news "to the surprise of absolutely no one". Stagecoach, the popular country music festival that follows Coachella's back-to-back weekends, has also canceled its April 23-25 dates.
Major American live-entertainment organizations sent a letter to American president Joe Biden formally offering their venues, staff, and expertise to the COVID-19 vaccination effort, Variety reports. “Our experiences organizing events and managing crowds now put us in the unique position of being the best prepared and most qualified industry to support the vaccination effort" - said Dayna Frank, Board President of NIVA.
New Zealand seems like Mars now with the rest of the world in some sort of lockdown due to the Covid pandemic, while the island-country in the southern Pacific holds big shows (it had 1,927 Covid-19 infections over the past year). Pop band Six60 held a concert in Hastings on Saturday night which was attended by - 20,000 fans. Hawke's Bay reports from the show.
Organizers of the Ultra Music Festival Miami 2021 cancelled the popular DJ techno fest for the second year in a row, citing COVID-19 concerns, Billboard reports. The Bayfront Park event would have happened in March in downtown Miami. Organizers of Ultra are requesting that City of Miami officials approve their permit request to stage the event next year in March.
Glastonbury Festival has been cancelled for 2021 due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, and organisers have revealed that ticket deposits will be rolled over to 2022. "As with last year, we would like to offer all those who secured a ticket in October 2019 the opportunity to roll their £50 deposit over to next year, and guarantee the chance to buy a ticket for Glastonbury 2022" - the organisers said, adding - "we are very appreciative of the faith and trust placed in us by those of you with deposits, and we are very confident we can deliver something really special for us all in 2022!".
Primavera Sound held a clinical trial, with the help of experts, to see if a live music event held at an indoor venue with proper precautions but no social distancing guidelines could be safe from coronavirus transmission, NME reports. On December 12th in Barcelona, 463 individuals entered a concert hall featuring two DJ sets and two live bands. Attendees were between the ages of 18 and 59, they were all given a rapid Covid test and received a negative result within 15 minutes. They were each given a N95 mask, alcoholic drinks were served, the venue had optimized airflow and ventilation, and attendees were only allowed to remove their masks when drinking. There were however no social distance restrictions, and dancing and singing along were allowed. The event lasted five hours. Eight days later none of the group members tested positive to Covid.
For the venues to be reopened, the society needs to reach an effective level of herd immunity, which means vaccinating from 70 percent to 85 percent of the population, dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the top infectious disease expert said, the New York Times reports. In the case of the US, "this will occur some time in the fall of 2021, 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”. Once that happens, theaters with good ventilation and proper air filters might not need to place many restrictions for performances by the fall, including venues capacity, except asking their audience members to wear masks, which he suggested could continue to be a norm for some time.
Famous New Jerseyans Bruce Springsteen, Jon Bon Jovi, and former TV-host Jon Stewart have joined their home state #MaskUpNJ health campaign. Bruce and Jons encourage people to "wear a friggin' mask", with Springsteen saying he hopes it will help bring concerts back soon.
Dolly Parton donated $1 million to biotechnology company Moderna based out of Cambridge, Massachusetts to help them fund research for Covid-19 vaccine, which they recently announced as finished, Guardian reports. Parton heard about the project last spring through her friend Dr. Naji Abumrad from Vanderbilt University who treated her after a car accident. Vanderbilt’s research subsequently played a key role in developing Moderna’s vaccine.
Ticketmaster is working on a system that would allow concerts to resume, and it is based on verifying the vaccination status of attendees before allowing them entrance to shows, or else making sure they've recently tested negative for the virus, Billboard reports. Ticketmaster is working on a smartphone-based system that would allow ticketholders to send proof of having received a vaccine, or having tested negative during a 24-48 hour period, without which they would be denied entrance to events.
New Zealand is one of the only places in the world where musicians are touring right now, since they have successfully curtailed community spread of covid-19 with a total lockdown. Washington Post talked to the Beths, a band that's back on tour, happy to play and mingle with the crowd. However, they are limited to New Zealand, so by the end of their current tour, the Beths will have played 17 shows in their home country. Normally, they would have played 60 international dates...
"Still recovering from having gotten COVID at the end of February. I'm still dealing with the residual effects... Still coughing. There's still lung damage" - Tool's Maynard James Keenan told AZ Central about suffering from Covid-19. Hal also talked about wearing face-masks and freedom: "We wear seatbelts. We don't smoke in trains, planes or taxis anymore, or even restaurants. There's reasons for those things... Freedom is the ability to pursue your lifestyle, pursue what you want to do for your family, for your future, what education you want to get. And with that freedom comes a responsibility to look out for yourself, for your neighbor, for your family, for everybody".
BBC reports from the parks of New York where jazz musicians usually playing at Broadway have found their new stage to perform. They, for a change, play together, as opposed to practicing alone at home, and they manage to earn something, hopefully, more than change. But, they're worried because the winter is coming, and it'll get different - it will be harder to play, and the audience won't be that eager to be outside, especially for longer than one song.
"It's becoming a sort of respect thing" - singer-songwriter Gordi, now a practising doctor in hospitals in Australia, told BBC about face-masks. "As someone that is going to work in these places everyday, where health workers are putting their lives and the lives of their loved ones at risk - to wear a mask is not asking you to do a great deal," the 27-year-old says. This spring, after putting her doctor's career on hold, she moved to London and was supposed to start a tour with Bon Iver. When corona started she turned back home and to her patients...
"We in Northern Ireland are very proud of the fact that one of the greatest music legends of the past 50 years comes from our part of the world... So there's a real feeling of disappointment - we expected better from him" - Northern Ireland Health Minister Robin Swann has written in Rolling Stone about Sir Van Morrison's songs that protest against the coronavirus lockdown. In the lyrics, Van Morrison claims scientists are "making up crooked facts" to justify measures that "enslave" the population. "It's all bizarre and irresponsible. I only hope no one takes him seriously. He's no guru, no teacher" - Swann wrote.
The Oasis pop star Noel Gallagher announced his suspicion of masks last week proclaiming - “There’s no need for it… They’re pointless”. Former Stone Roses singer Ian Brown declared: “NO LOCKDOWN NO TESTS NO TRACKS NO MASKS NO VAX”. Tommy Scott of Space, did not disappoint. “I do not believe in any germs. If they are real, and there’s loads, why don’t they have a smell?”. Guardian tries to explain the "reasoning" behind - "it is asking a lot of the Britpop stars of yesteryear to believe in laws. Dominic Cumming’s [chief adviser to UK prime minister] lockdown drive to Barnard Castle, undertaken to 'test his eyesight', eroded the rules". Plus, it's not really their field of specialties...
"Conspiratorially-minded pop stars have always been the best to hang out with. Every quote is paranoid gold, every story full of mystery and intrigue and, Jesus, have they got the best drugs" - NME's Mark Beaumont wrote in response to Ian Brown's tweet-trum “NO LOCKDOWN NO TESTS! NO TRACKS! NO MASKS NO VAX!”.
"Festivals can go ahead safely with adequate testing" - Reading and Leeds boss Melvin Benn has told UK parliamentary committee about reopening venues at full capacity, Music Week reports. "You can’t have festivals with social distancing. You mass test" - Benn said, adding - "trying to open without full capacity is just not an option".
The last Jeremy Ivey video was a chilling vision of reality, the new one - quite the opposite, a light-hearted and ironic take on the "new normal". He says "these are the good old days no matter how bad they seem. Just remember, life could be a lot harder than it already is". Watch the video below.
Sturgis Motorcycle Rally brought nearly 500,000 motorcycle enthusiasts to Sturgis, South Dakota between Aug. 7 and 16, and now over 250,000 cases of COVID-19 have been connected to the rally and concert, where Smash Mouth, Trapt, Fozzy, Drowning Pool, Quiet Riot and others performed. A new research paper from the German IZA Institute of Labor Economics also concludes that the Rally generated public health costs of approximately $12.2 billion.
UK venues have put forward a plan to reopen, which includes dancing in face masks, temperature checks at the door and bouncers patrolling the dancefloor to enforce social distancing, the Guardian reports. Nightclub owners say that 750,000 jobs are at risk because of the lockdown, unless the government provides them with support or greater certainty about when they can reopen. The clubbing industry pointed out that some of its venues are larger than pubs, restaurants and other venues that have been allowed to open, while they often recycle air more frequently with powerful mechanical ventilation systems.
Scientists from Leipzig have held three pop concerts last Saturday to investigate the risks posed by mass indoor events during the pandemic, CNN reports. About 1,500 healthy volunteers aged between 18 and 50 - only a third of the expected number - took part, but the head of the study from Halle University said he was "very satisfied" with how the event unfolded. The first of Saturday's three concerts aimed to simulate an event before the pandemic, with no safety measures in place. The second involved greater hygiene and some social distancing, while the third involved half the numbers and each person standing 1.5m apart. Singer-songwriter Tim Bendzko performed at all three successive gigs.
A new U.K. study has found there was not a substantial difference in the spread of aerosols (tiny particles that are exhaled from the body and then float in the air) between talking and singing when done at a similar noise level, which is good news, of course. What did make a difference, though, was the volume of the voice, where singing or shouting at the loudest level possible could generate 30 times more aerosol, which is bad news for metal bands. BBC reports on the study.
Everybody's washing their hands now more than ever, including metalheads, so etsy shop Corpse Paint Soaps made bar soaps designed in the likeness of various face-painted metal musicians, Brooklyn Vegan reports. There's King Diamond, Abbath, Dead and Euronymous of Mayhem, Seregor of Carach Angren, former Gorgoroth bassist King ov Hell, and Dani Filth of Cradle of Filth. Scent-wise, the soaps don't smell of mosh-pits or men-sweat, rather the soaps run the gamut, with notes of bergamot, rosemary, ginger, pine, eucalyptus, cedarwood, and, in the case of Dani Filth, parma violets, as requested by Filth.
Members of the Locust, Slipknot, GWAR, Clinic, and the Residents have shared tips with Spin about getting around with masks in daily life. First advice: make it comfortable; general advice: you’re talking about a few moments of discomfort against the possibility of being dead, it sells itself.
Marc Geiger, the former global head of music at talent agency William Morris Entertainment and co-founder of Lollapalooza, has said the concerts, hit hard by Covid-19, won't return until 2022. Speaking at the on The Bob Lefsetz Podcast, Geiger said “It’s my instinct, that’s going to take a while because super-spreader events — sports, shows, festivals, etc. — aren’t going to do too well when the virus is this present”. He added there are “probably 20” roadblocks that need to be overcome before live music can return. “The virus and illness being one, spacing and density” being another, he explained. A third, Geiger noted, will be insurance and liability. “With [COVID], there’s infinite liability”. he said, noting the challenge venues and promoters will face in finding an insurer willing to cover their events.
YouTuber Vance Kotrla has made a hilarious black metal song 'Wear a Mask' that explains why everybody needs to wear masks. The video starts out with him holding an acoustic guitar standing, saying he is in a folk band, so he decided to write a song encouraging people to wear masks. So he did - a short and funny black metal banger, with lyrics like "Wear a mask / Over your nose and mouth / Wear a mask / To stay above the ground". Watch below.
Resident Advisor reports on specific rules on nightclubs reopening, as the COVID-epidemic is weakening in parts of the world: China has cautiously restarted its nightlife; South Korea has shut down its club due to a recent spike of COVID-19 infections in the country connected to the clubs; Switzerland has increased the maximum number of people allowed to attend indoor public gatherings from 300 to 1,000 with no social distancing; in Australia, nightclubs could be allowed to open as early as August if community transmission rates are kept low, although a four-square-metre-per-person rule to allow for social distancing is likely to be enforced; New Zealand has lifted all COVID-19 restrictions, aside from international border controls; Bars and nightclubs in Iceland opened their doors as the government eased lockdown rules.
This is the perfect time to focus on outdoor or semi-outdoor events where a “concentrated plume of droplets” is less likely to hit you, Gabriel Scally, honorary professor of public health at the University of Bristol, told the Guardian about the future of shows, music or otherwise. The issue that is going to matter a lot is - how well is the venue ventilated, which spells trouble for the punk bands from the basement circuit. Nightclubs have an even lower chance of returning soon, not until there’s a vaccine - with the exception of New Zealand where they’ve basically eradicated the virus - or unless everybody dances in a certain direction!?! Daisy Fancourt, associate professor of psychobiology and epidemiology at University College London points to a new way of thinking: “Our focus shouldn’t be on getting back to normal, but on finding a way to adapt".
Country singer Chase Rice staged a large concert in Tennessee last weekend with zero social distancing and not one face mask in sight. In the 10,000 capacity venue about 1,000 people turned out for the concert, and all attendees were given temperature checks, although organizers were unable to enforce physical distancing during the actual concert, TMZ reports. A similar case involved American Vice President Mike Pence, the leader of the administration’s own coronavirus task force. On Sunday, Pence attended a near-capacity, indoor event at the First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas with 2,200 attendees, and a 100-person choir singing without face masks, CNN reports.
