The co-founder of Lollapalooza, Marc Geiger, appeared on Bob Lefsetz’s podcast to discuss music in the time of the coronavirus. While concerts with social distancing guidelines have started again already, Geiger has his own opinion about when concerts will make a full comeback to the way that we once knew them.

From the source, Brooklyn Vegan, there is a statistic about concert-goers attending shows saying, ” various experts have predicted 2021 in general and fall 2021 specifically, while 64% of epidemiologists say they won’t attend a concert for at least another year.” Geiger comments on the roadblocks caused by COVID stating, “The virus and illness being one, spacing and density” being another, and as a third, insurance and liability. With [COVID], there’s an infinite liability.”

Geiger mentioned the germaphobic community and the claustrophobic community hold a big factor to the return of concertgoers in this situation, because they are going to take the longest to return to shows.  Geiger also commented on the state of the situation, whether he was commenting on the situation of the coronavirus in general or the state of the music industry and touring is unclear. He says, “The next six months may be more painful than the last six months, and maybe the next six months after that are even more so.” Geiger goes on to talk about the possibility of “massive amount of bloodshed, bankruptcies, and won’t be good for the majority of the industry.”

On the podcast, Geiger’s airs his concerns with the coronavirus, as he speaks about the ‘disruption of normal society.’ Lefsetz asked Geiger about the economics of agencies and the businesses behind the live music industry and if they could withstand years of pause on business. Geiger says, “Those who have access to really good financing and crediting systems can definitely survive… in todays world when you have access to capitol you can borrow against that for a year or two.”

Photo Credit: Sharon Alagna