It’s been said that live music is back, but for more and more major cities, that promise comes with caveats. Today, in an effort to combat spiking COVID-19 cases, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health has issued a new order requiring attendees of any major outdoor event to wear a mask, regardless of vaccination status. This requirement goes into effect on Thursday, August 19th, at 11:59 p.m.
As Variety points out, the easily-transmissible Delta variant of the coronavirus is now predominant in L.A. County (though a vast majority of hospitalized patients have not been vaccinated). This news follows orders issued last month, which reinstated a mask mandate for most indoor spaces, including concerts, restaurants, gyms, and more. With this new order, outdoor concerts and music festivals of 10,000 attendees or more will now require folks to wear masks, too, except for when “actively eating or drinking.”
This mandate follows last week’s news that both Live Nation and AEG, the country’s two largest concert promoters, will require proof of vaccination for all artists, crew, and attendees at US venues and festivals. Beginning next month, all New York City venues are requiring proof of vaccination for indoor concerts — negative COVID tests will not be accepted. Some artists, like Limp Bizkit, Korn and Lynyrd Skynyrd, have cancelled and/or postponed tour dates over COVID concerns.
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