Poll Says Most Americans Will Avoid Live Events Until Coronavirus Vaccine
Fewer than half of Americans are willing to go to gigs again until a coronavirus vaccine is made available.
While music lovers have spent the past few weeks of lockdown dreaming about the chance to see their favourite bands live again, a new opinion poll has shown that fewer than half of Americans actually plan on attending a gig until a coronavirus vaccine is made available.
According a Reuters/Ipsos poll of 4,429 American adults, only "about four in 10" would be willing to attend concerts, sports events, the cinema and amusement parks before a proven coronavirus vaccine came about, with another four in 10 claiming that they're "willing to wait, even if it takes more than a year to develop a vaccine". Other poll-takers said that they may never go to these things again, while some simply said that they didn't know.
“Just because people say we can go back, until people feel fully safe… they aren’t going to go back,” says Victor Matheson, a specialist in sports economics at Massachusetts' College of the Holy Cross. “We go to games for entertainment and you’re not going to be very entertained if you’re not worrying about who the next player to bat is and instead worrying about that person who just coughed two rows down.”
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It's a sentiment that Machine Head frontman Robb Flynn discussed on his blog, The General Journals: Diary Of A Frontman… And Other Ramblings, recently, revealing that he didn't think the band's shows would resume until the summer of 2022.
"This pandemic, like nearly all pandemics, will last 18 to 24 months," Robb wrote. "It's going to come in waves. We’re gonna be hunkered down for a while, then we’re going to be able to lighten up some of the restrictions. Then it’s going to kick back in and we’re gonna have to hunker down, quarantine, shelter in place, social distance. Then we'll free things up again, at least to some degree, and then a third wave will probably come… and by then we will have the routine down so it will likely be under control, with the vaccine that’s wildly available to the general public.
“I myself have been able to keep a far more positive mindset knowing that Machine Head shows will probably not resume until summer of 2022," he continued, "and that we will likely not get fully back on track until 2024, if we ever get back on track at all!
“Clubs, venues, promoters, a lot of life as we knew it… it’s all going to be decimated. Look at all the Euro festivals that have already been cancelled.”
On a more positive note, he added, “This is not all doom and gloom. I strongly believe that the world will be a much better place when this is all over. This is our moment to transform. This is our moment to re-imagine the world, to re-imagine our lives. This is our moment to that the giant Reset Button up in the sky. Embrace the chaos.”
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