Image taken by Owen Humphreys.

By: Jeralynn Querubin

Concerts were all fun and games until the novel of COVID-19 took over the world in March however, the U.K. has come up with a way to hold concerts in this pandemic

Live music is still widely appreciated amongst the old souls and teens of this generation today. However, with the COVID-19 outbreak, artists put an extensive halt with live shows. On August 13th, the first concert to be held during the pandemic took place in Newcastle, England, at the Virgin Money Unity Arena. With 2,500 people attending, major precautions were enforced. 

Given the circumstances of the pandemic, all attendees were separated into five groups and were assigned a platform to stay in. Each platform was approximately 6-feet by 6-feet and was two meters apart from each other. Normally, the arena’s capacity is 30,000 people, but with the strict regulations from COVID-19 in place, only 10% of the capacity filled the entire venue.

Headliner of the show, Sam Fender, states he was a bit skeptical about the whole event. Nonetheless, the audience took him by surprise “The crowd made up for it, because there was so much pent up and frustration from lockdown, that people seemed to be singing a hell of a lot louder than they probably have been since last year.” 

The hopes are high for the U.K. as COVID cases remain fairly low, in comparison to cases in the U.S. With the enforcement of banned social gatherings of more than six people, Prime Minister of England, Boris Johnson, says that they would not need a second lockdown. Although Johnson claims this statement, it is still hard to believe as the development of a vaccine is inconclusive. 

The future of live music is unknown with the global pandemic. However, as the UK sets up the very first socially distanced concert, the U.S. is up for drive-in concerts for the time being. Bands such as Sublime and artist Brad Paisley will be having drive-in concerts starting October 2020. This brings into an interesting question: will this be the new social norm for concerts?

Check out the link below for more information on drive-in concerts happening in the U.S:

https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/concerts/9379646/drive-in-concerts-list-coronavirus