I neither drink nor enjoy live music, but have never had an issue with Bethlehem's annual Musikfest. To each his own. I do think however, that it was a mistake to conduct huge outdoor gatherings at a time when the pandemic is surging in the host county. I doubt many wore masks or social distanced, and am sure many of the people who visited are unvaccinated. Perhaps I'm wrong. If you attended this year's annual festival, feel free to let us know what you think.
9 comments:
It was a covidfest. You were right, the local media sopped it up. All love and no caution. No one masked huge packed crowds and plenty of smiling politicians. I would anticipate surges with the multiple state license plates in the city. Money over safety.
Three concerts drew nearly 120,000 on the beach in Atlantic City this weekend. This ain't the South where Trump nuts and untrusting blacks are holding down vax rates. It's time to live again, and learn to live with what will likely be endless variants. Get your shots. Get your boosters when available. Get back out there and live instead of waiting to die.
Very easy to social distance though some chose not to do so. I never was close to anyone not within my close circle already and had a mask just in case.
I also am not a Musikfest fan. While I do love live music, I am not much of a festival fan. And the parking and crowds just aren’t worth the hassle to me. I will go to see a compelling headliner some years, but that’s about it. That being said, I do worry about case counts as a result of Musikfest’s lack of mask and vaccination requirement. Lollapalooza festival in Chicago seems to be a good test case that having a vax requirement and negative test requirement can be effective in preventing these events from becoming superspreaders. Very few cases were traced back to lollapalooza, where upwards of 100k attended. 90% were vaxxed up and the rest needed a negative test.
We opted out attending the concert we had tickets for the first weekend, due to concerns about the crowds and no masking. My MIL is in her 90's and we didn't want to risk getting a case and transmitting it to her despite her vaccination.
The Fest in general feels a bit like the Allentown Fair midway, which I can do without. We did walk around the second Saturday at lunch, and the crowds were light and unmasked. No one but the two volunteers in the beer tent when I got a lager. We sat outside, not under a tent with others, and listened to a group from Conn. who were ok.
Maybe I'm just getting too old for it, but was not in a partying mood.
Overall impression: Meh.
I agree with 7:42. Get your vaccine and start living life again. Just like the seasonal flu, COVID isn't going anywhere so we can't hunker down and shut down the economy every time there is an uptick in cases. Personally I don't care if employers mandate the vaccine. Public schools already mandate multiple vaccines for kids. It would help with productivity in the workplace as the current guidelines suggest an employee should be out for so many days if they test positive for COVID. So even if they don't get seriously ill, they will still burden the employer.
I was at Musikfest and wasn't concerned about COVID. I made the choice to attend and respect those who decided not to attend because they were worried about COVID. That freedom is part of what makes this a great country.
Went 3 times, and had a blast. I'm vax'd, didn't wear a mask, and didn't care qho did. As others have said. Time to accept it and live your life how you choose.
Crowds seemed down - The number of masked were minimal - The feel was more open then packed- But think there is the potential for lots of communicable transmission - I wonder how many people who had symptoms went.
It was interesting when I saw someone who had a coughing fit. The crowd backed away and many seemed to keep their distance from that individual in the short term.
To "get your vaccine and start living again". I was fully vaccinated back in Februrary and just finished my 10 day isolation BECAUSE while living my life, I contracted Covid. It was a mild case but still it was covid. Don't be fooled into not complying with the masking madates.. Musikfest will produce a number of breakthrough cases. Wait and see if the papers even report it.
Post a Comment