The Bishop Gunn frontman has booked a concert in Arkansas as Governor Asa Hutchinson is relaxing lockdown restrictions in the state amid the ongoing Covid-19 crisis.
- May 7, 2020
AceShowbiz - Bishop Gunn frontman Travis McCready is planning to play America's first concert featuring enforced social distancing measures.
Mass gatherings have been banned across America since March 2020 in a bid to curb the spread of the coronavirus - effectively preventing musicians from performing in public venues.
With governors in many U.S. states relaxing lockdown restrictions and stay-at-home orders, McCready has booked a gig in at the TempleLive venue in Fort Smith, Arkansas on May 15 - three days before the state's Governor Asa Hutchinson has stated gigs may be held again.
Guidelines on the Ticketmaster website for the show state that only 229 seats at the 1,100 capacity venue will be sold, creating socially distanced pods of fans, with all those in attendance required to wear face masks and have their temperature taken before arriving.
TempleLive executive Mike Brown tells Billboard magazine that he's confident the concert will go ahead, despite it being booked before Arkansas' restrictions on gatherings are officially lifted.
"We actually just got off a conversation with the state health department," he says. "The governor has done a great job with his administration and how he has handled this."
Comparing the concert to a religious gathering, he adds, "If you are a church, there are no restrictions on how many people you can have inside as long as they follow CDC guidelines and stay six feet apart. So our position is, a public gathering is a public gathering regardless of the reason, whether you are going to go to a quilting event, a church or a concert. Tell me the difference, because in our opinion it is discriminatory."
