Sad news, punters! Industry big wigs are now predicting that it could be up to two years before we’re able to get our sweat on at stadium concerts and music festivals.
In an appearance on The Bob Lefsetz Podcast, Lollapalooza co-founder Marc Geiger made the disheartening declaration after he was asked when he believed concerts would return in the era of COVID.
“In my humble opinion, it’s going to be 2022,” Geiger responded, shattering our collective hearts.
Geiger continued, “It’s going to take that long before, what I call, the germaphobic economy is slowly killed off and replaced by the claustrophobia economy — that’s when people want to get out and go out to dinner and have their lives, go to festivals and shows.”
“It’s my instinct, that’s going to take a while because super-spreader events — sports, shows, festivals, etc. — aren’t going to do too well when the virus is this present,” he added.
Geiger said there are “probably 20” roadblocks that will have to be sorted before live music can return to what it was before this virus ruined our lives.
“The virus and illness being one, spacing and density” being another, he explained. A third, Geiger added, will be insurance and liability. “With [COVID], there’s an infinite liability,” he said, adding that both venues and promoters would most likely face obstacles trying to find an insurer willing to cover such risky events.
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“The next six months may be more painful than the last six months, and maybe the next six months after that are even more so,” he continued.
So all very positive, encouraging stuff, basically.
Until then, artists are trying to fill the moshpit-sized void in our hearts with some live stream performances of their own, with Neil Young, Ben Gibbard, Robbie Williams, Papa Roach, The Cure and Grateful Dead among the many performers making the move to online shows – for the time being, at least.
Check out the Red Hot Chili Peppers perform at Lollapalooza 2006:
