With the outbreak of COVID-19, the United States has gone on lockdown, only letting people leave their homes for “essential” purposes, urging people to stay home and practice social distancing. 

The city of San Francisco has been in lockdown since late March, and has banned public gatherings of 100 people or more, meaning many events and concerts would be cancelled. Many other cities have followed San Francisco’s rule, and have done the same. 

Nationwide, many events have been cancelled or postponed such as the interactive, film and music SXSW festival in Austin,Texas. It has been cancelled entirely and as of now, tickets will not be refundable. 

Rolling Loud music festival in Miami, Florida has also been postponed until early next year, during Presidents’ Day weekend. Rolling Loud has stated that the lineup will remain unchanged, tickets will be honored, and refunds will be offered. 

One of, if not the biggest music festival in the United States, Coachella in Indio, California, has been postponed until this October. Coachella has announced that tickets will be honored and those unable to attend can obtain a refund. 

The 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo have also been postponed to a date beyond 2020, no later than summer 2021. This marks the first time the games have been impacted by anything other than war. The last time was World War II.

 Also, on March 12, Broadway in New York  announced that it will be going dark and those who had tickets for shows will be offered refunds. All shows as of right now have been suspended through June 7. 

Many artists such as Billie Eilish, Alicia Keys, the Jonas Brothers, Elton John, Lil Mosey, Michael Bublé, Bon Jovi, Tame Impala, Post Malone and many more also postponed their tour dates to help slow the spread of COVID-19.

Mercy student, Delaney Mulqueen ‘22, who was supposed to attend the Lil Mosey concert but didn’t for safety reasons, said, “I was looking forward to it for two months, although it was really tempting to go, I couldn’t risk my health, and that way I was keeping other people safe, too since everyone was supposed to be social distancing. Also, my parents wouldn’t let me.”

English teacher Susan Sutton had tickets to see Bon Jovi and Bryan Adams this summer, but the concert was recently cancelled. “I had a feeling it was going to happen, but it was still disappointing,” she said. “The tickets were a birthday gift, and my sister and I had the whole night planned.”

She added, “I’ve seen both of them before, several times, but never together, and they are two of my favorites. It was going to be a nostalgic moment, too, because when I graduated from high school, my sister graduated from eighth grade, so our Mom gave us tickets to the Bon Jovi concert as graduation gifts. I am hopeful that they will reschedule.” 

In an effort to make time at home more enjoyable, artists such as Swae Lee, who was supposed to open for Post Malone’s Runaway Tour, had an “concert” on Instagram live on March 21. He had the whole setup, including fake crowd noises and even brought a fan watching “on stage.” 

Many DJs have also been going live on Instagram and have been playing music for their fans. James Sanchez ‘22 attended DJ PForreal’s live DJ Instagram session. He stated, “I think it’s a good, thoughtful thing for him to do, since we are in a bad time right now, he’s making fans happy by performing for us.”

The extremely popular game, Fortnite, has recently teamed up with Grammy nominated artist, Travis Scott, who was supposed to headline Coachella and Rolling Loud, to launch “Travis Scott’s ASTRONOMICAL” event, which included five “in game concerts” from April 23-25 at different times so fans around the globe can experience the show. 

Gio Ferrari ‘22 who attended one of the shows added, “It helps people at home be entertained because it’s something new to see.”

Visual Performing Arts Instructor Valerie O’Riordan touched upon how the entertainment will be affected by the outbreak.

She said, “The entertainment industry is definitely losing money, like many, many other global businesses.  However, I also know that anyone in the industry is most likely of the mind that ‘the show must go on.’”

“To that end, there have been ‘living room concerts’ by celebrity musicians, late night TV hosts present in their own living rooms and make us laugh, there are many Broadway and international theatre being streamed for free…simply to help us stay connected to one another, to maintain a sense of ‘normalcy’ in this not-so-normal time, and to cathartically heal our wounded world,” O’Riordan said. 

Health experts have predicted that concerts and live events won’t return till Fall 2021. For now, video game and Instagram concerts are the closest fans are going to get for new, live entertainment.