Live music amid Covid

10/24

Mike, Ashley, Wally and I

So…. among other things that were shut down live music was one of them. Major bands can survive but local and regional acts not so much. They depend on this for their sole means of support. They don’t get unemployment or stimulus benefits .

Our state has a “last Call” rule of 11 pm. This at least gives musicians the opportunity to eek out some money.

This week Atlanta Georgia did something huge. A 3 night, 3 band live concert event at Centenial Park downtown Atlanta. it was called Big Night Out.

In the past these concerts accommodated 50,000 people. Due to Covid they allotted 2,900 tickets per show.

I must say they spent a ton of money to make sure it was Covid proof. They set up socially distant pods. 6 people max in an 8×12 pod 4 people in an 8 x 8 pod. They set up 3 sided barriers each 6 feet apart. They also set up delivery of merchandise, beer/wine/liquor and Hemp products by a QR code to scan with your phone.

We went to day 2. Marcus King Trio. There were two warm up bands. That black Mark is our pod. We had 6 tickets but only 4 people. Plenty of room.

They tried hard to police the pods from all the “pod hoppers”. The pouring rain probably made this a little harder than normal.

The concert was cut short from the weather but it was really worth it to us. We spent to much money but it was so much better than no concert at all!