Català · Español · English · Français · 汉语


Logo AgendaConcerts.cat


Search concerts by day

AgendaConcerts.Cat. Concerts & Music Festivals all around the World · Facebook · Twitter | X · Instagram · Threads


Llegir en Català · Leer en Español · Read in English

Covid-19 hits live music as a mass extermination event


Covid-19 hits live music as a mass extermination event

A mass killing event is an event that kills 50 percent of the species. In science it is called the Extinction Level Event (ELE) and it may be familiar to anyone who remembers the movie 'Deep Impact'. The causes of extinction events are usually unknown, although they are often pointed out on meteorites several kilometers in diameter, erupting supervolcanoes, or nearby supernovae. Of the five that are known, the most damaging was that of the Permian-Triassic that eliminated 96 percent of the species.

The Covid-19 pandemic that currently afflicts humanity is far from such a level of catastrophe despite the hundreds of thousands of deaths it is causing but, in the live music sector, it is on the way to becoming an ELE in all rule. Only 1 in 10 concert promoters expect their business to survive the pandemic according to a study by Musicaprocv, Association of Musical Promoters of the Valencian Community.

A grey landscape leans out decidedly into the once joyous world of live music, be it concert halls or music festivals, despite permission to hold outdoor events with social distance. The profitability of these shows is very low compared to that enjoyed in the pre-Covid world of music and they are subject to weather conditions, the sometimes protective and sometimes threatening sky. And the worst thing is that there is no possible way to gather the thousands of people who require the great international tours in the same space, such as a pavilion, to be profitable in such conditions.

The times of coexistence with the coronavirus are called the new normality, but for the world of music it should be called a new beginning. With six months of Covid-19, concert halls are finally closing, the Saudi funds are starting to buy large stakes at low rates of the sector's titans ($ 367 million for being the third largest partner of Live Nation) and festivals and major tours are postponed to 2021. And there are still almost 6 months of 2020, a year from which nobody in the sector, and outside, expects almost nothing in the absence of a vaccine.

The eyes of some promoters may be wet when they think of 2021, the savior, others, more informed, insightful or pessimistic, only their hearts accelerate when they think of 2022. For Marc Geiger, co-founder of the Lollapalooza macro-festivals franchise, the great Concerts and festivals won't return until that year, and it doesn't have to be in January. So if the mask, chair and social distance concerts are strange in July 2020, with only six months of Covid-19, if the pandemic continues in 2022, the situation of live music in that year will be so strange in our eyes as the new Earth of the Planet of the Apes. As if a nuclear war had suddenly erased a whole familiar landscape made up of crowded and suffocating concert halls and green artificial grass at summer music festivals.

Will it be the end of live music? It does not seem likely that it will disappear, but it will be different until at least the arrival of the desired remedy. During Jurassic ELE, small mammals were best adapted for survival by consuming much less than large dinosaurs. In the same way, those that are going to suffer the most from the stoppage of concerts are large multinationals, millionaire cache artists - and a similar standard of living - and anyone with high fixed costs.

Therefore, in the absence of international artists, music festivals, and large crowds, it seems that it is the time of the humble local musician with light luggage. They would have to take advantage of this opportunity; it does not seem that the mammals did badly.