Fortunately, things have reopened and the world as we knew it is on its way back. The lights on Broadway are shining again and concerts have turned up the volume. Okay, it’s a changed world, with proof of vaccination and masks required for entry into many venues, but at least there’s movement.
Unfortunately, we are not yet in the clear, and there are still concerts being postponed and shuttered due to the virus, such as Labor Day weekend shows with Dave Chappelle and Joe Rogan, cancelled in both Nashville and in New Orleans. Of course, if one is familiar with Joe Rogan, it would be hard not to see a bit of irony in this cancellation of events. While I do love a bit of irony, it’s a sad fact that The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival has had to cancel for the second year in a row due to rising Covid cases. Although our ongoing battle with Covid and its new variations continue to plague us (so to speak), our challenges are not just health alone, as the weather also seems to be conspiring against us.
The Story of a Hurricane
Of course, it would be understandably difficult to put on a show in a hurricane-devastated New Orleans, but the heavy rains from Hurricane Ida also caused the cancellation of Bonnaroo in Manchester TN, an event that had been slated for the Labor Day weekend. On August 21, a deluge from the outer bands of Hurricane Henri flooded New York’s Central Park midway through the “We Love NYC: The Homecoming Concert,” forcing organizers to cut the event short. To quote Robert Burns, “The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry.”
If I were a shaman looking for signs, I might find irony and meaning in the half-completed “We Love NYC” concert of stars, but I’m not. I’m just another audio/production guy looking to source sustainable work in a world gone wild. On a positive note, a better outcome was had in Philadelphia, where the “Made in America” festival was a success over Labor Day weekend, despite the inordinate flooding that occurred due to the hurricane.
Then, just to add another dimension to otherwise fraught productions, there are the protesters who are staging their own events outside of venues that are requiring proof of vaccination. Cancellation insurance rates, which are already high, specifically do not cover Covid-19. Although insurance does cover inclement weather, it is a good possibility that their rates will go up if there is an increase in the severity and likelihood of storms in areas that were once considered safe from certain forms of disaster. All of these issues become part of the production waters we need to navigate and should be added to the schedule as such.
Fortunately, production is something we do well in the entertainment field, and I’m proud to know many great production managers and companies. The people of note are ones who pay attention to detail and plan in advance so that, come the day of the show most issues are addressed, if not already worked out. These are people who can think around problems. Case in point? Last year’s Super Bowl halftime show, which, even in good times, is a massive undertaking. In the time of Covid it needed to be rethought to make it work and it succeeded despite some audio mishaps. Kudos to DPS, Dave Meyers and their team because concert, event and live show production is an unforgiving undertaking. If a moment is ruined, there is no getting it back and any mistakes are on display for all to see.
Military Precision
Ask any production manager and they will tell you that a good production is run with military precision. Productions have many moving parts, any one of which could fail despite the best planning and intent, and while most productions are successful, there are those that do fail. Some of these failed productions are marred by promoter greed, others by incompetence. Such things as collapsing stages, festivals overrun by gate-crashers, poor equipment, poor scheduling and of course poor judgment are some of the culprits in these failures. It’s these fiascos that brings to mind what I consider to be a horrible production failure, along the lines of Great White’s 2003 pyro debacle — Afghanistan.
Yup, I went there, but believe me, I’m not politicizing this moment. As I watched the evacuation unfold, all I could think is that it looked like a major production failure. Did our president take it upon himself to do the production? Did he bypass his production team of military advisors? I’ve seen artists and managers take it upon themselves to do their own production with negative results because they were so used to it going right that they thought it was an easy job. They figured they could save a little money but forgot to ask important questions, book the right amount of labor or leave enough time. I’m assuming that the military didn’t need to do a walkthrough, as they had been there for 20 years, but this seems to be a failure of the advance team, otherwise known in military circles as intelligence.
Maybe they should have brought in the Super Bowl production staff. They would have required months to advance this event and work out a schedule, whereas this production appeared to be based upon last-minute decisions or even an afterthought. Considering that in our tiny section of the universe we have our load-in and load-out protocol of stage, lights, scenery, audio and backline for the in and reverse the order for the out. We plan it so that the correct trucks are in the dock at the right time. We make sure to have the correct number of hands to facilitate the in and out. Lastly, when we complete the load-out, we send in crew members to do an idiot check and make sure we are not leaving anything behind. If another production is loading in directly after us, we make sure that they don’t start moving in their gear until we are totally out. It seems reasonable and not totally out of the realm of rational production thought.
I know that it’s easy for me to criticize, considering that I am not aware of extenuating circumstances, but if I were handling the production for the load-out of a 20-year war, I would start by scheduling meetings to coordinate with all the vendors and essential personnel. A few of those horrible conference calls we all have to endure to make sure everyone is on the same page would have helped or, did someone just hope for the best and shout “go?” Should the military have known how to produce an event like this evacuation? Do they have qualified production managers?
I have been involved with quite a few military events, and I know that they have qualified personnel to produce large-scale events. I would think that after loading in and out of many different countries, these people would have been called upon to assist. Should they have known that the in-house production team was clueless? I would think that 20 years is a long time to ignore the signs or to miss the fact that this information was being disregarded. I, of course, know nothing. I have no inside information and I wasn’t there, but I do think that almost any major touring production team could have done a better job producing this event. Remember, “A good production is run with military precision.”
