Downtown | Music | Arts & Culture | Public Health | COVID-19 | Space Ballroom
Lucy Gellman File Photo.
Two local music venues plan to keep the good vibes going through the fall and well into next year. As they do, they're hoping to stop the spread of potentially deadly viral droplets and a new variant of Covid-19.
College Street Music Hall and the Space Ballroom have joined a small list of New Haven businesses and entertainment venues requiring proof of full vaccination or a negative PCR test as the city battles rising Covid-19 rates and the highly infectious Delta variant. Manic Presents and Premier Concerts, which operates the venues, announced its decision Wednesday via Facebook and Instagram just hours before unveiling several new shows for the fall and winter.
Patrons now must "bring your vaccination card or clearly legible photo of your vaccination card on your phone and a valid photo ID" or the digital results of a negative PCR test, wrote Manic Presents on social media. If they wish to provide a negative test result, it must be no more than 72 hours old.
Both venues returned to performance in June, and have been rolling out programming for months. In its announcement, Manic reminded patrons that regardless of vaccine status, they would need to be masked to enter and remain in the space.
"We feel that we're at the forefront of the fight against Covid with our live music events at our indoor venues," said Keith Mahler, who runs Premier Concerts and is the face of the New Haven Center for Performing Arts, Inc. (NHCPA). "We wanted to prevent any issues. We're forward thinking in everything we're doing to protect our fans."
He added that he sees the move as a logical continuation of the work Premier Concerts and Manic Presents has been doing to keep music fans safe from the virus since last year. A year ago this month, the outfit announced its outdoor "Twilight" concert series at South Farms in Morris, Conn. Two weeks ago, College Street and Space Ballroom instituted a indoor mask mandate before either New Haven or Hamden had announced theirs. Mahler said that some musicians may require proof of vaccination only, and not take chances with negative tests.
The news comes as new data shows that hospitalizations from the Delta variant have been rising and trending younger nationwide, including in Connecticut. At the end of July, Yale New Haven Hospital reported that hospitalizations were five times higher than they had been earlier in the month. In New Haven County, 69 percent of residents have received at least one dose of the vaccine.
The venue joins BAR New Haven in making its decision this week. On Wednesday, music fans greeted the announcement with gratitude, support, lots of virtual applause, and occasional frustration and snark. For every commenter who promised to boycott the business or return their tickets, at least a dozen were there with words of thanks.
"This is leadership," wrote one commenter who identified herself as a nurse amid streams of clapping emoji hands, smiley faces and red and purple hearts. "Thank you," wrote the New Haven musician Brian Ember.
"Glad I have no tickets at either place," wrote another.
By the end of Wednesday, Manic's Facebook post had over 30 shares and almost 70 comments. On Instagram, it had almost 550 likes. Mark Nussbaum, who has grown Manic Presents from an idea in his basement to a full-time job as Premier and Manic's talent buyer, shared the post with emojis of a dripping needle and masked face.
"Get the 💉 and wear a 😷," he wrote.
New Haven has not yet mandated vaccines for city employees. Last week, Mayor Justin Elicker moved reinstitute a citywide mask mandate inside public and private gathering spaces. That mandate went into effect on Monday. In a phone call Thursday morning, Elicker said that city officials are currently working to figure out the logistics and cost of a vaccine mandate and program, including the option of routine testing for city employees who refuse vaccination. Currently, asymptomatic testing is not free in the city or the state.
Elicker said that including the New Haven Public Schools, the city has over 6,000 full and part-time employees. Before any mandate goes into effect, he wants to be sure that there is a system in place to track vaccines and testing and keep employees' medical data secure.
"I don't have a firm answer for you on it," he said. "As you can imagine, it's complicated. and it's more complicated than one might think."
New York City, Washington D.C., Washington State, Baltimore, and the nearby city of Stamford have all instituted vaccine mandates. As of Monday, Gov. Gavin Newsom of California also mandated that public school teachers be vaccinated or tested regularly. The New Haven Board of Education has announced that testing will be readily available for students and teachers, but has not said that teachers must be vaccinated.
Across downtown, Cafe Nine owner Paul Mayer said that he is not yet ready to impose a vaccine mandate, but will be evaluating the need on a "per show basis" and is relieved to have patrons wearing masks again. Already, a few agents have asked him whether the venue has a vaccine or negative PCR policy, and Mayer is ready to impose rules for specific shows.
In the meantime, Cafe Nine has also placed a large box of disposable masks by the door. Mayer said that most patrons have been extremely compliant, with the exception of "a few knuckleheads" that he has come to expect after decades running a music venue.
"This is not something that I imagined we would be facing," he said. "Everything was moving so well."