AND WE'RE BACK (ish)!
What a crazy year this has been! We returned to playing weddings and events in July for the first time since the shutdown began in mid-March. Our schedule is obviously much more sporadic than it typically is this time of year, but if I had to wager on it, I am guessing we will average a wedding/event every 2-3-weeks through the rest of 2020. Several have already rescheduled for 2021.
As for the events that we are having, we want to entertain and make it just as memorable as ever! However, the current reality of an infectious respiratory virus means we have to be conscious of what we can do to minimize risk. Our goals in addressing safety boil down to three things:
We want to minimize the risk of anyone in the band getting sick.
We definitely do not want to spread something to you and your guests!
We want to come up with ways to give an even more visually entertaining performance in the event guests are dancing from a distance.
As a result, here are all the policies we have put in place:
For the toasts we have a dedicated wireless mic on a stand that is in a single position on the floor (we check with photographer where they feel is most visually appealing). This allows whoever is giving a welcome, blessing, or toast, to have a mic that someone hasn’t been singing in to. Our sound engineer will get the mic and stand in place so they won’t have to handle anything.
The musicians have been instructed not to get close to guests in the crowd like they normally would on the dance floor. Especially the horn players given that their way of playing their instruments is pretty "spread-friendly.” We don’t want them putting anyone else at risk!
On the two sides of the stage we have some nice chrome stanchions with black velvet rope to set some distance between the sides of the stage and any guests. I don’t think we should have any issues, but guests aren’t allowed on the stage.
We have custom matching floral-pattern face masks that match some custom floral ties that we are wearing. Band members can use their discretion if they feel comfortable performing in one so it is up to them.
We have an ipad in a metal kiosk that has a screen on with an image that says, “If you have any questions, please text _____” and lists Danny’s and our sound engineer’s phone numbers. That way, if anyone has any questions (especially while we’re playing and it might be hard to communicate at a distance) they can send over a text.
We’re staggering the arrival time of the setup team and the musicians so that when the musicians arrive, the majority of our sound and lighting is set up.
We have some nice commercial-grade white HEPA13 ionizing air purifiers and fans that we put in the back of the stage to keep the air moving and filtered
And most importantly, we have made it our policy that if a band member has been around anyone positive in the last 14 days, OR if they're just feeling slightly off, to let us know and we’ll find a substitute. And so that no one is second guessing it and putting anyone at risk, we’ve made it the company policy to still pay them half of their pay.
Of course we want to amp up other parts of the show’s performance to allow it to be even more visually entertaining. With this time off we’ve taken advantage of it and done a couple things:
We have some new SICK mashups we have created. We never put our mashups online, but there’s some amazing song transitions we’ve come up with that we can’t wait for you to party to (“I Wanna Dance with Somebody” into the “We Found Love” breakdown? Yes, please!).
The singers have been videoing ideas and sending them around to collaborate with each other on punching up the choreography throughout the set.
We’ve designed some light sequences specific to the set AND got some new lighting fixtures we’re adding in.
As I mentioned, the events we have had have been amazing. We’ve had a couple that ended with “one more song” chants to where we had to get permission from the venue to go late (they said, “yes!”). Nonetheless, we express solidarity with everyone that’s been effected by this, especially those that have resulted in loss. We’re all cheering for the scientists and participants working on vaccine trials. We’re counting on you!