Uncertainty lingers while live entertainment plans its return

001Further innovation with livestreaming technology and downsized events in smaller markets — that’s what Scott Keith sees as likely in store for live entertainment.

“I do think we’ll see smaller events return first. You might see local and smaller events do well before it all slowly builds back up again,” said Keith, president of Lansing Entertainment & Public Facilities Authority, which oversees the Lansing Center and Lugnuts Stadium.

“People will ask themselves, ‘Do I want to go to a Tigers game where there might be 40,000 people, or do I want to go to a Lugnuts game where there’s only 6,000 people?”

East Lansing Art Festival, a local mainstay since the early-’60s, fell victim to the coronavirus earlier this month. Now, on May 16, it will be one of the largest events of its kind in Lansing to get the livestream treatment. The all-day Facebook Live event will feature musical performances and several art demonstrations.

East Lansing Art Festival manager Heather Majano said city leadership canceled the festival instead of postponing because of the lack of a finite date on when shelter-in-place orders will evaporate.

“We thought that canceling it and hopefully being able to count on hosting it as normal in May 2021 was the most responsible decision to make.”

Terry Terry, the founding board member of MICA, which produces JazzFest and BluesFest, said the two Old Town cultural staples are still planned for their original schedules in August and September.

“We’ve thought about some contingencies, and there’s really only three: Move the dates, cancel, or merge JazzFest with BlueFest. The adjustment will be anything from cancellation if necessary, to postponement,” Terry said. “It’s too early to predict the entire future right now.”

Terry thinks livestreams are here to stay, and they won’t taper off even when people are finally able to attend concerts uninhibited.

“This is amplifying it. People are getting better at it, and I think it’s going to be a new component. It will enable us to have a greater reach, and it has longevity,” Terry said.

But despite the growing number of online alternatives as the public grows more accustomed to consuming media exclusively online, uncertainty lingers over the rest of 2020 as it becomes increasingly difficult to book acts.

“A lot of artists are concerned about large gatherings. Taylor Swift has canceled all of her shows for this calendar year, Bon Jovi did the same,” Keith said. “We don’t have dates to open back up again and we don’t know the potential restrictions. Without those parameters it’s a challenge to understand how to book.”

Keith and City Pulse announced last week that the 3rd annual Margarita Fest, which was to occur at the end of May at the Lansing Center, has been canceled.

Keith said there are many factors to consider when booking events that will ultimately be safer and easier to manage in the eventual post-shelter-in-place world.

“When you have tickets, you can control the amount of people that attend just by the number of tickets you have available,” Keith said. “A free, open event in an open atmosphere is going to be hard to manage.”

Mac’s Bar manager Scott Bell believes venues and festivals will ramp up measures to ensure patrons are practicing good hygiene. “Venues and festivals will have to double down on hygiene and ensuring their customers that it is safe to gather. It will be I think a few years until we see people relax when it comes to large crowds,” he said.
“There might be some changes. We were just getting used to walking through metal detectors, now it could be fever detectors,” Keith added. “There could be nuances that are added to concert events.”

“You might see people in masks at festivals,” Terry said.

The state of Common Ground in July, which LEPFA also helps produce, is yet to be determined. Keith elaborated on the interweaving mechanisms in the decision process of rescheduling a major concert event.

“Most artists have some sort of routing schedule. They’re not going to go to one place and then go to the other side of the planet for another show a week later,” Keith said. “They’re typically going to be in a row. It’s a puzzle for the lack of a better term. The artists, venues and producers try to put that puzzle together. It creates quite a few challenges logistically.”

Keith said many in his industry are experimenting with different ways of holding events that naturally accommodate social distancing.

“They’re testing drive-in concerts in Germany. There’s going to be some variety in how concerts come back, but ultimately it’s the experience that really makes it,” Keith said. “Livestreaming works in the interim, but people are going to want to be there in-person experiencing it with other people. I think that will make its way back faster than people think.”

Bell said live entertainment’s hope to return promptly is contingent upon the government to strengthen its testing effort and the public to follow shelter-in-place orders.

“If you really want to see live music return, then do your part by staying home for frontline workers,” Bell said. “Also, demand that your government take testing seriously. The only way we overcome this is with adequate testing. Which isn’t happening right now.”