Past Sunfest concert / Global News
The pandemic has brought a pause to in-person events and live music. Making artists and concertgoers alike miss the large crowds and entertainment.
Two of London’s largest music festivals, Sunfest and Rock the Park have yet to make final decisions for this season, but are keeping a close eye on the pandemic and provincial guidelines.
Alfredo Caxaj, the executive co-artistic director of Sunfest says that the annal festival will happen in July with no question, but the format remains undecided.
“We hope that in one way we could do some kind of in person activities, or could be a combination of virtual things. So kind of a hybrid thing,” says Caxaj. “But if that’s not possible, we’ll do it virtually as we did last year.”
Brad Jones, the organizer of Rock the Park says predicting the status of the pandemic has been testing when trying to plan for this summer.
“I would think probably the most challenging part is just trying to know what’s realistic, and what isn’t realistic,” Jones says. “In regards to the vaccine, because I don’t think we’re going to have any sign of a full festival with 100% capacity until everybody is vaccinated.”
Jones says Rock the Park will not be taking a virtual approach this season, and will wait until it’s safe to meet in person at
Rock the Park 2019 / CTV News
Harris Park once again.
“It’s really about being in the park and the camaraderie,” the organizer says. “The outside breeze and the trees and music is almost secondary. So I don’t think we’d be able to do it justice by doing anything virtually.”
Jones and Caxaj both agree that the live music industry will be extremely popular once it’s safe to enjoy the large crowds and loud music once again.
“I guess the big lesson that all of us have to learn from this is that we need to appreciate what we had before the pandemic. And hopefully we’ll be able to even appreciate it more when we go back to normality,” says Caxaj.
