“Get ready for festival season.” You’ve seen that before here in the pages of FOH — but you’ve never seen a festival season like the one that’s coming.
Normally when we talk about prepping for music festivals, we’re concerned with getting gear ready, making sure your console firmware is up to date, and all the things you can do to make “grab it and growl” gigs go smoothly. Throw all that out the window. This year you’ll have to think about how Covid concerns will impact your shows.
Prepared to Be Tested
Whether or not you like it there are a lot of venues where you’ll need to show proof of a negative Covid test taken within a window of 24 to 48 hours prior to show day. If you’re positive, you’re positively out. Other venues have Covid testing areas setup near the security check where they’ll administer a rapid antigen test on day of show before you enter the building. If you test positive your backstage pass is worthless. This has been a minor inconvenience for my small group, but think about how many people in your touring group need to be tested and set “load-in” accordingly because the process will take some time.
Prepare To Be Vaxxed
Many venues now require proof of vaccination for everyone working in the building, including building security and maintenance workers, hospitality workers, band members, band crew, house crew, and the mouse that hangs out in the room where they store the wedge monitors. Your vax card is now almost as important as your passport. In fact, if you don’t leave the country much, your vax card is more important than your passport. Some venues accept only the original vax card, and not a photo or copy of it. State-sponsored apps with a digital copy of your vaccination record may satisfy the requirement for a venue in your home state, but don’t expect it to be accepted in other states.
You may work shows with other artists who are not satisfied with the guidelines set forth by local authorities and implement their own. We just played a show as the support act to an international artist whose management required that anyone entering the building to work backstage take an antigen test on-site, administered by a local testing lab — regardless of house policy. Testing may be available only for a certain time period on a show day, so if your band members are accustomed to showing up later in the day for sound check, you’ll want to make sure that testing will still be available when they arrive. Otherwise, get them in the door early, get them tested and send them back to their hotel rooms so they stay out of the way of your crew during setup.
Prepare to Be Masked
Though it may be awkward or uncomfortable, you’ll probably be expected to wear a mask at all times throughout the course of the work day while you’re at an indoor venue (some venues relax this policy at front of house). The general consensus seems to be “stay masked unless you’re in your own dressing rooms.” When there are multiple acts on a show we request to be physically separated from them. Most venues are able to accommodate, but you’ll want to advance this way ahead of time so that there are no surprises on day of show. Our management has made efforts to avoid support acts whenever possible. In cases where there is support, it’s usually a solo act; neither they nor their crew are permitted backstage.
Rethink Your Hospitality Rider
We’ve been avoiding any sort of buffet or common meal situations, and that can be a problem for small venues. As an option, we present the idea of taking a buyout for meals, so that (1) we don’t have to worry about eating with people outside of our bubble and (2) we don’t have to set specific times for meals. We’ve also changed our hospitality rider to avoid shared food items. For example, rather than requesting family-size bags of chips, we now ask for assorted snack-size bags so that 18 people aren’t sticking their dirty paws into a large bag or bowl. Ditto for nuts or other dry snacks that would otherwise come in large containers. While you’re at it, make sure there’s plenty of hand sanitizer and sanitizing wipes in the dressing rooms and backstage. Most venues are more than willing to accommodate such requests.
Step Away from the Downstage Edge
Low stages that can easily be reached by audience members are an invitation for them to touch your gear. You can help prevent this by requesting barricades and/or security at the front of the stage. If that’s not possible, move the downstage mic positions upstage far enough so that people can’t reach pedalboards or band members. It should go without saying but use a disinfectant wipe on the grill of all vocal mics after anyone has used it.
Our group has implemented a strict “no guests backstage” policy since we resumed gigging after the lockdown. No exceptions. In cases where band members have family in a city where we’re playing, I’ll arrange a meeting area separate from the “proper” backstage area where they can go meet their guests without bringing them backstage. And for us, all meet and greets have been canceled until further notice. It’s the only way to ensure everyone is safe and can continue to work.
Steve “Woody” La Cerra is the tour manager, front of house engineer, and Covid enforcement officer for Blue Öyster Cult.
