After going to my first ever concert in 2019, I made a promise to myself that 2020 would be my year of live shows, and it seemed like the universe was on my side because so many artists I loved announced tours. Harry Styles, Doja Cat, The Weeknd, 5 Seconds of Summer, Halsey, Khalid and, my all-time favorite band, The 1975 were all supposed to perform live at some point last year. I guess the universe wasn’t on my side after all because we all know what happened to those plans. Every concert and music festival was either postponed or as cancelled as Ellen DeGeneres. Then 2021 rolled around, brought some vaccines with it, and concerts were back! I was so excited… until I wasn’t.
The first artist I’m seeing this year is Harry Styles in October. He postponed his tour instead of fully cancelling it, and when I saw the new tour date for the show I bought tickets to, I was over the moon. He posted on Instagram in August that all attendees will have to show that they’re fully vaccinated or that they tested negative for COVID-19 within 48 hours of the show, and everyone will have to wear masks regardless of their vaccination status, which made me feel safe. That is, until I read comments under his post saying it wasn’t safe enough for him to tour given the current state of things and saw an article about a woman who’d created a fake vaccination card.
I thought by the end of 2021, seemingly more than enough time for the pandemic to run its course and enough people to get vaccinated would have passed so we could put this behind us. Wow was I wrong. There are new variants of the virus, not enough people are vaccinated to reach herd immunity and Florida is one of the states with the most people testing positive for COVID-19.
All of this has me thinking… should I go to this concert?
Yes, there are safety guidelines in place. Yes, I’m fully vaccinated. Yes, I’d hate to waste the money I spent on tickets. Yes, I adore Harry Styles (pun intended). However, I’m more than slightly concerned after reading that article that people will be able to get into the show with fake vaccination cards or negative test results. Even setting that aside, there could be fully vaccinated attendees who have COVID-19. Also, even if none of the concertgoers have the virus, I don’t know if the same could be said for the staff we’d interact with when entering the building or buying food or merchandise. Plus, how are they going to enforce the mask mandate? Attendees will probably be packed so closely together it will be impossible for staff members to keep an eye on everyone to make sure masks are always on. The masks will certainly be a nuisance considering we’ll be dancing and probably ridiculously hot, which would make it hard to breathe and lead to us wanting to take them off.
On the other hand, maybe I’m just being a bit of an alarmist. Maybe I just need to relax and enjoy myself because that’s what we all want to do after being cooped up for so long. There’s a fine line (pun intended again) between concern and paranoia and I’m trying not to cross it. Could someone there have COVID-19? Sure, but having the vaccine means I’d be a lot more likely to fight it off if I did end up getting the virus. Maybe there’s nothing to worry about at all. I’m not sure if I’ll end up going, but if I do, I hope I’ll look back on this article and find all my worrying comical because everything turned out perfectly fine.
