Concert venues and theaters in the Bay Area are now allowed to reopen after the state shifted safety regulations this week.
That means concerts, comedy shows and magic acts can perform once again.
But strict regulations are still in place and for many smaller venues, the math literally doesn’t add up.
“Each entertainer must be six feet apart from the other entertainer, and if they are unable to wear masks – so maybe singers or wind instruments – then they must be 12 feet apart,” explains Dan Williams, the executive director of PianoFight, which has a location in San Francisco and Oakland. “And of course the audience needs to be 12 feet apart from that.”
So in a small space like PianoFight, what you would end up with is essentially a private show.
“Our venues are not build for 36, 48 square feet so that you can have a trio with a singer and then also have an audience that’s spaced throughout the room,” said Williams.
PianoFight’s location in San Francisco has a restaurant and bar as well, which will help with the reopening. But he says there is no way to stage a show at this time.
Venues like Cobbs and the Fillmore are somewhat larger than PianoFight, but even they have clear calendars for the next several months.
“On top of that there’s a really big question mark, which is demand. I think people are going to be probably pretty reticent to get in and get shoulder to shoulder and squeeze in to a theater and sit in one place inside next to strangers for an hour at a time.”
So he worries that the narrative that they can legally reopen will hurt the fundraising efforts that the venue is still relying on, or their ability to get loans or have them forgiven.
“The venues have taken on mountains of debt, every single one of them.”
So even as venues are able to reopen, once those bills are due there could be another wave of closures.