Concerts and festivals won’t return until Autumn 2021
By Giulia Chiuso
Fans hoping they will be back at gigs by the end of the year may be disappointed as UK experts say they are unlikely to be able to resume until “Autumn next year, 2021”. Many events including festivals, concerts and sporting events have been postponed or cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic, and it looks like there could be disruption longer than expected.
Zeke Emanuel, a bioethicist and professor of healthcare management from Chicago, revealed that people shouldn’t expect concerts to resume until late into 2021. Speaking at a New York Times roundtable, he questioned why promoters were trying to reschedule events for later in 2020. He explained: “Larger gatherings – conferences, concerts, sporting events – when people say they are going to reschedule this conference or graduation event for October 2020, I have no idea how they think that’s a plausible possibility. I think those things will be the last to return. Realistically we’re talking fall 2021 at the earliest.”
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, large gatherings have been banned for the foreseeable future as part of measures to control the spread of the deadly virus from person to person. Many countries, the UK included, have also introduced lockdown measures telling people to stay in their homes except for infrequent trips to buy food or for medical reasons, one form of exercise a day and travel to and from work if they can’t work from home. All UK summer festivals including Glastonbury 2020 have been cancelled, tickets for this year will roll over to next year and the USA’s Coachella festival was pushed from April to October this year.
Mr Emanuel added: “Restarting the economy has to be done in stages, and it does have to start with more physical distancing at a worksite that allows people who are at lower risk to come back. Certain kinds of construction, or manufacturing or offices, in which you can maintain six-foot distances are more reasonable to start sooner.”
Ph. AnnaMatt Glastonbury 2019
