Nashville is making plans to reopen, but it doesn’t include live music for now.
Nashville’s “safer at home” order set will expire on May 1, and Mayor John Cooper has announced a phased plan to reopen the city after over a month of shutdowns due to Coronavirus. The plan includes 4 phases, with each phase lasting 14 days. And if there aren’t improvements, or if COVID cases increase during any of the phases, the city would revert to the previous phase – meaning that it will take at least two weeks, but potentially longer, to move from one phase to the other.
Here are the phases:
- Phase One: opening restaurants and retail businesses at half capacity. Bars and entertainment venues (including museums, tours, etc), along with sports venues, would remain closed.
- Phase Two: Increased capacity for restaurants and retail to 3/4 capacity, but restaurants still have to keep their bar areas closed…and they aren’t allowed to have live music.
- Phase Three: Bars will begin to open up again with live music. Bars will be required to reopen at half capacity, and employees will have to wear masks.
- Phase Four: Bars are allowed to reopen at full capacity.
With "stay at home" lasting until May 1st, the absolute earliest the bars will reopen in Nashville is the end of May. But if there’s an increase in COVID cases during any of the earlier phases, it could be back to square one – and another month of doing it all over again.
