Since March 2020, when COVID-19 happened, there has been such a huge gap in the live entertainment and events scene. COVID-19 protocols set by the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have prohibited public gatherings from taking place in observance of social distancing.
This has caused the live entertainment and events sectors to come to a grinding halt leaving artists, performers, and suppliers of all sorts with no viable means of income to get them through the lockdown season.
Adapting to the situation
Within the lockdown period, people started to clamor for more social interaction. We know how social separation and isolation affect our mental and emotional health. This has allowed artists to come up with creative ways to still be able to do what they were meant to do albeit virtually.
Events and live performances started taking place online. If you’re used to going to an event with a red carpet, cocktails, a still photo or GIF booth, a DJ, and the whole nine yards, this is quite a different experience for you. In fact, it’s a different experience for everybody altogether.
Attending live Facebook events or paying for access to live performances in Zoom does not compare to what it’s really like to be inside a concert hall or stadium packed with screaming and energetic fans and viewers.
Seminars, workshops, forums, and conferences went to the virtual world as well if only to keep things going for different industries that are experiencing the ramifications of the global health issue. According to some medical practitioners we have talked to recently, conferences and gatherings will continue to take place online until 2021. They fear that even if things start to get better early in 2021, even if a vaccine has been released publicly, prematurely holding public events and large-crowd gatherings will cause a resurgence in COVID-19 cases.
Technology and Ingenuity to the rescue
Thanks to technology and ingenuity, what used to be events that involved large crowds have now been made safer, even if it’s on a smaller scale. Virtual events are fast becoming the norm nowadays as folks who clamor for social interaction and entertainment are now flocking to different virtual events platforms to get their fix.
The pandemic has somewhat forced everyone to become flexible in order to thrive under these new normal conditions. While events were called off completely at the onset of the pandemic, some brilliant folks figured out that you don’t really need to cancel an event just because of the coronavirus. Instead of doing it in a physical venue where the risk of contracting the disease is higher, they took the next logical approach and decided to go virtual. This way, events can still proceed as scheduled without putting anyone at risk.
When this trend started, the ones who had the upper hand were companies involved in the tech industry since they already have the equipment and the know-how to proceed. Non-tech companies soon followed suit and almost everyone now is involved in online events one way or another.
As the government has gradually been loosening its COVID-19 regulations and people are starting to hold in-person events on a smaller scale, most companies still prefer to go online for now. It is still unclear how this will affect the live performance and events industry in the long term but it is definitely safe to say that virtual events will be more commonplace moving forward.