Arkansas’ Governor has issued a cease and desist order against TempleLive for their plans to host America’s first “socially distant” concert later this week.
Music publications around the world have spent the better part of two weeks covering an upcoming May 15 performance from Travis McCready. The Bishop Gunn frontman was set to headline the first “socially distant” concert in the United States at TempleLive, which was also going to serve as a testing ground for live music in the age of COVID-19. However, a last-minute intervention from the state’s governor has canceled the event.
Arkansas, like most US states, is still working to slow the spread of coronavirus through a statewide lockdown. The current restrictions on public activities expire May 18, which is three days after the McCready concert was set to happen. The staff at TempleLive was making efforts to make the show as safe as possible, including cutting capacity from 1800 to just 229. Still, Governor Hutchinson decided this week those efforts were not enough.
“You can’t just arbitrarily determine when the restrictions are lifted. That is something that is done based on a public health requirement,” said Hutchinson at a news conference, citing guidelines for venues that stipulated events of 50 people or more must be operating at less than 34 percent capacity and must have plans approved by the Department of Health. He added, “Clearly, it is three days before we determined it was an appropriate time to open up to a limited capacity in some of those informal venues, and even if you’re going to have 250 people at a venue, you still have to have a specific plan that would be approved by the Department of Health. None of that was done in this case.”
It’s surprising to see the decision to cancel the event happen so close to the show date. After all, the media has been covering the concert since early May. Those in a position to deny the event have no doubt been aware of its existence as long as the rest of us, if not longer.
TempleLive has not announced any additional concerts at this time, but the news of this cancelation is yet another example of our ‘new normal.’ As we covered in this week’s Music Biz 101, the live music business is going to be experimenting with events for the foreseeable future. Shows will happen, but what they look like, how they operate, and how often they occur will change frequently. Some states may allow concerts for a short while only to ban them again as COVID-19 infection rates vary. For now, the best thing any of us can do is be patient. Live music isn’t going away forever. We will sing and dance together again.
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