Coronavirus Latest: Local Concert Venues Prepare To Host Concerts For First Time Since March
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- After Gov. Larry Hogan relaxed restrictions on live entertainment venues earlier this month, now some concert venues are hosting shows for the first time in months.
The music finally returns to Baltimore Soundstage on Friday
"We're going to have our first show since March," Dave Adams Jr., General Manager of Baltimore Soundstage, said. "We're going to have up to a 100-person indoor show, seated [and] socially distant."
The coronavirus pandemic has silenced concert venues all across the country for months, but now in Maryland, they can open their doors.
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They're still limited to up to 100 people indoors and 250 people outdoors.
Baltimore Soundstage said it's taking every precaution it can for its first show since the pandemic began, featuring local hip hop artist Billy Lyve.
They'll be sanitizing surfaces hourly and placing sets of seats six feet apart.
"The seats are all laid out six feet from each other and your pod will be your party," Adams said. "You will not be seated with anybody that you did not come with."
They're also hosting shows at the Frederick Fairgrounds, with up to 250 cars at drive-in concerts starting on October 6.
But some venues still can't open their doors.
Merriweather Post Pavilion spokesperson Audrey Fix Schaefer said many artists aren't touring because venues are still closed in other parts of the country.
"There's no way an 18,000 capacity venue could possibly open with the limit of 250 people," she said. "The economics of it just is not workable."
She's hoping Congress will pass the "Save our Stages Act" to provide aid to independent concert venues like Merriweather Post Pavillion and Baltimore Soundstage.
"Unless Congress gets together and passes an overall COVID relief package, we don't get included in it," Fix Schafer said. "So we need Congress to not abandon us."
You can visit saveourstages.com to learn more about the bill.
If you want to buy tickets for any of the shows at Baltimore Soundstage, and to see who's playing, click right here.
For the latest information on coronavirus go to the Maryland Health Department's website or call 211. You can find all of WJZ's coverage on coronavirus in Maryland here.
