The Event Safety Alliance, headed by  ESA vice president Steven Adelman and operations director Jacob Worek, have released official safety guidelines for live music venues in order to prepare for their eventual reopening, according to Billboard. This news is certainly exciting, as it if the first step toward returning to live music that has been taken since the coronavirus pandemic shut down the live music world.

Adleman and Worek reportedly spent the past month or so crowd-sourcing more than 400 tour promoters, managers, Ticketmaster employees, caterers and Irish-fair organizers in order to release a 29-page guide that was put out this past Monday. The wording shows differences and inconsistencies among states; Kansas bars are allowed to open as of May 18 at half capacity, while live concerts resume in Branson, Missouri, this coming Friday.

A massive list of recommended guidelines were released as part of the guide, which included this following list of guidelines:

• Hand-washing every hour, as well as after sneezing, mopping, smoking, eating, drinking and other select activities.
• Required masks.
• Sanitizing door handles, sink faucets, soap dispensers, elevator buttons, phones, water fountains, vending machines, trash bins and computers, among many other things.
• Stagger lines into venues so patrons don’t have to cluster in lines.
• Temperature screening for every customer.
• Clear protective shields for will-call and box-office windows.
• Employers must provide paid sick leave.When employees can’t stay six feet away from others, they should form work teams “in which people routinely work together, but they keep their distance from everyone else.”
• Educate fans “in a word, everywhere,” including mobile apps, ticket-selling sites and social media.

While the guidelines have been released, tours and concerts are still being cancelled and postponed, including recent cancellations of Primavera Sound, Virgin Fest, and the Black Keys’ Let’s Rock tour.

“Just knowing how to do what you’ve always done — that’s not going to cut it at all,” Adelman stated following the release of the guidelines. The full list of the recommended guidelines can be found here.

Photo Credit: Mauricio Alvarado