If you think the coronavirus pandemic’s only affected massive festivals like SXSW and Coachella and big-scale tours like Billie Eilish’s and Cher’s, think again. As more metropolitan areas take necessary steps in an effort to contain the virus’s spread, thousands of smaller acts are having their entire year — and, in many cases, their only source of income — completely wiped out. Even in the best-case scenario, the spate of nationwide event postponements and cancellations will likely affect concert bookings until the end of the year, drastically changing the live-music landscape for the rest of 2020.
Over the month and beyond, we’ll be speaking with artists about how the coronavirus has affected their livelihood, as well as what they anticipate the future of the touring industry to be in the near and long term. Here’s what they — including Yungblud, Tokimonsta, Wired, They Might Be Giants, Code Orange, Black Lips, and many more — had to say about the difficult road ahead.
“We’ve had a bunch of sold-out shows that were booked over the next weekend and the weeks after that. Our booking agent was pretty proactive and smart about realizing that the scope wasn’t going to just be momentary, so we’ve done all the rescheduling that we need to do, but it’s really hard to know how long this is going to go on. I won’t get into financial specifics, but I’ll say that if you’re looking to hold on to your dough, it’s always a smart idea not to be in a rock band. But our financial situation is one of the least important things about this. I’ve been broke for most of my entire adult life, so I’ll be fine. I think what’s happening in the country is a much bigger deal. I think this is gonna be a lot worse than it needs to be because we don’t have the [real]adults running things.”