Chicago Tribune: The last big scene of “The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart,” Frank Marshall’s excellent documentary about the rise (and staying power) of the Bee Gees, takes place in 2017 at Britain’s colossal Glastonbury Festival. There’s good old Barry Gibb, the last surviving member of his family’s hugely successful pop group, gaining solace in his silver years as he floats on a wave of love from a live audience of, incredibly, more than 100,000 people.
5 comments:
In conversations I’ve had about COVID for the past many months, I think it has always been either explicitly said or implied that our lives are never going to be the same as they were before COVID. We can eventually reach a place where the virus is under control, but whatever normal we reach will be a new normal. And honestly, I don’t think it's all that bad. Masks could become commonplace when you aren’t feeling well or traveling a lot, for example. This article is focused on large festivals and events of the like– something many people have enjoyed in the past. Mass MoCA in North Adams, Massachusetts hosts a bluegrass festival every fall filled with constant performances across their museum campus and food vendors all over the place; it’s one of my favorite things in the world. But, I think I have to be resigned to knowing it won’t be the same for a long time, and likely will always be a little different than what it used to be. Hopefully we reach a place where those who make a living in this industry will be able to safely continue their work & festivals and events of the like can continue– but we have to be prepared for that to take time and for it to be different.
This is one of the things that I really just cannot figure out how to make work with the COVID limitations. I really think that large festivals like this will not be able to come back for a very long time, however there have been some really interesting ideas that people have been doing to continue live music through the pandemic. On the simplest terms, requiring social distancing, mask wearing, and having outdoor performances is probably the easiest way to go about doing it, but I have seen some really interesting ideas, so far. I attended a drive-in concert earlier in first semester and it was a really great, safe way to have live music events. More of these can pop up and the scale can get much bigger, as well. I have also seen shows where the people get in bubbles and have pods while they watch concerts which is less feasible, but I think a really creative way to make this all work. This is going to be one of the hardest things to get back on its feet again, but it is going to take some really creative problem solvers to find safe and viable ways to get back into making live events happen.
This idea of the world never returning to "the before times" is one that many people, or at lease myself, have come to terms with over the past year. I think it is safe to say that at least a portion of this article is correct. Giant gatherings like once a year music festivals will almost currently not be able to open back up to full capacity with no restrictions for a few years. I personally think that smaller events, and I'm using the term smaller here liberally, like in person theatre will be able to open sooner with fewer restrictions, but like others have said masks are likely to become a staple of big gatherings. Weddings and the like, as referenced in the article, may return sooner under similar restrictions as theatre. But in terms of concerts and festivals, I think those will be very different in what ever the "new normal" turns out to be. While we may be slowly getting a handle on the COVID virus, a complete end to it, at least in the US, is still not within sight any time soon, as depressing as that may be.
This was an interesting article to come across because I was just yesterday talking to my dad about concerts when I called him while he was watching a documentary on a musical artist. (As he does… he loves his documentaries…) He’s much more optimistic politically than I am, and that also rings true with COVID. We were sort of going back and forth about when we think concerts will come back as normal again, and I argued that there’s no way people will be back in large venues until at least 2023/24, if not later. He was hopeful that they’d be back sooner than that. Regardless, I’ve never been one to go to concerts too often anyways, so it’s not like the resurgence of Coachella is going to affect me at all anyways. But with the Super Bowl that happened just last weekend, it surprised me to see that people were in the stadium stands at all. Maybe we’re not as far away from normalcy as my brain like me to think.
This article made me very frustrated. It's very simple when "big music festivals will return": WHEN EVERYONE IS VACCINATED. The article had stated "At the core of this issue, of course, is the value we place on such massive gatherings." No. NO. No matter how much you can "value" massive gatherings, that doesn't change the fact that there is currently a pandemic that is VERY bad in our country. I've been to a number of concerts too. I know the fun and reasoning as to why everyone misses and craves it so much now. It's one of the first things I want to do once everything is back to normal. But I also know how moshy, heated, and crowded it can get. You are pushed against other people's sweaty backs and you scream at the top of your lungs. It's great fun but obviously a terrible idea during an airborne pandemic. And in the end, the sooner people take the pandemic seriously, like how it was last march, the sooner people can get their concert they want.
Post a Comment