Could This Be The Way Back To “Normal” For Live Music?

Obviously, what with some virus taking over the planet, live music has been a bit of a challenge. We’ve all enjoyed having some amazing artists streaming their wares across the web. But nothing does it quite like the real thing.

For artists and musicians this has been a huge hit financially, with  more than £900 million wiped from the industry in the UK alone. HEER MAYBE.

Tim Bendzko

Fortunately, scientists in Germany are carrying out an experiment that could provide crucial information that might make re-commencing live music and performance possible. The project will involve 4,000 volunteers attending an indoor stadium show by German pop singer Tim Bendzko in Leipzig on August 22nd. It’s called ‘Restart-19’ and has $1.1 million of investment in the research.

Participants will attend three different versions of Tim Bendzko’s show: one without any type of social distancing, another with slow entry and more hygiene measures and restrictions in place and a final one where they’re able to sit socially distantly from one another. Data will be collected in a number of ways including each participant wearing a tracking device that will emit information every 5 seconds, fluorescent hand sanitiser (to see which areas and surfaces are high risk for contamination) and by pumping fog into the stadium to measure how coronavirus might spread by aerosols. 

“We are trying to find out if there could be a middle way between the old and the new normal that would allow organisers to fit enough people into a concert venue to not make a loss,” Stefan Moritz, the experiment’s co-ordinator told The Guardian.

It’s hoped that the experiment’s findings will be produced by October.