When we look at industries that were hit the hardest in 2020, live music can be found at the top of the list.
The music industry, and more specifically the live music industry, was stopped in its tracks last year once COVID revealed itself as a global epidemic.
All of a sudden there were no more upcoming concerts, tickets were refunded, and tours were canceled. Now, as roughly ⅓ of Americans are now fully vaccinated, steps are being taken towards normalcy. But what do those steps look like for live music?
According to visitmusiccity.com, concerts are back with precautions in place. For example, there are no dance floors open and there can’t be more than 2 performers on stage at a time. This year Nashville is already set to host several big-name artists, from James Taylor to Justin Bieber.
There are plenty of upcoming concerts announced in venues like the Ryman and Bridgestone, but what about the small independent concert spaces?
The pandemic has put a very large financial strain on many of them. In response to this, several independent venues formed the Music Venue Alliance last fall to support the live music industry and raise awareness of the challenges it faces.
The Exit In was almost permanently closed until fans pulled through with donations recently. Now, since restrictions are loosening many are jumping at the chance to hold events.
As of now, The Basement East is one of the smaller venues offering full capacity shows.
About a week ago Governor Lee announced, “It’s time for celebrations, weddings and conventions and concerts and parades and proms and everything in between to happen without limits on gathering sizes or other arbitrary restrictions for those events.”
It seems that a lot of venues are taking this advice and resuming large gatherings. While the indoor mask mandate still remains in effect for Davidson County, things are looking towards a change as summer hits.
There hasn’t been any announcement about whether concerts will require proof of vaccinations or if masks will continue to be enforced throughout the year.
Photo via Mckenzi Harris