By ELAINE MALLON
Capital News Service
LANSING — With pools closed and parks taped off, summer 2020 was quieter than usual.
Summer 2021, however, is expected to not only look different, but to sound different as well.
Or will it?
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has urged Michigan residents to get vaccinated and to practice social distancing measures — including avoiding large crowds.
Some Michigan music festivals are still scheduled for this summer, including Faster Horses in Brooklyn and Unity Christian Music Festival in Muskegon.
But others are already canceled, such as Hiawatha in Marquette and the Movement Electronic Music Festival in Detroit.
Under Whitmer’s March 19 order, outdoor entertainment and recreation venues are subject to a 1,000-person capacity limit. Attendees must wear masks at all times, except when eating and drinking, and must remain 6 feet apart from each other.
The Department of Health and Human Services’ advice to avoid crowds may conflict with the atmosphere of a traditional music festival.
Lynn Sutfin, a department press officer, said it’s important to continue to follow COVID-19 restrictions.
“We are still very much in this pandemic, but we’ve learned a tremendous amount about how to protect ourselves and our loved ones,” Sutfin said.
“That’s why every Michigander has a personal responsibility to do their part by wearing a mask, washing hands and maintaining social distancing to help us slow the spread of this virus,” she said.
Tickets for the July 16-18 Faster Horses Music Festival are for sale on its website.
In past years, Faster Horses, a country music festival, has generated crowds of more than 45,000 people.
Located at the Michigan International Speedway, 2 miles south of the village of Brooklyn, Faster Horses generates high revenue for local businesses, according to village manager Jae Guetschow.
“It’s kind of like the races — it puts us on the map,” Guetschow said.
While not involved with planning the festival, Guetschow said that the decision to hold the festival this summer relies on whether a large portion of the population is vaccinated.
“It could easily become a super-spreader event if there aren’t sufficient immunizations to have the crowd immunity by that time,” Guetschow said.
Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, the state’s chief medical executive, said the surge in cases is troublesome.
“Patients are again lining our hallways like they were last spring,” Khaldun said. “We need to be using every tool in our toolbox, right now, to get the cases and hospitalizations down. Again, just because something is open, and legal, it does not mean that you should be doing it.”
Many festival organizers say they remain hopeful that the continued drive for immunizations will allow their festivals to take place.
According to director Kevin Newton of the Unity Christian Music Festival, the festival is still planned for Aug. 11-14, when it would celebrate its 20-year anniversary.
Typically it attracts 50,000 to 60,000 people and donates all profits to local profit groups. According to Newton, in the past 19 years, it’s raised approximately $1 million.
“Ticket sales have just been tremendous as we’re back on sale,” Newton said. “People want to come to an event. They’re ready to come to an outdoor event, and obviously are not really intimidated by it.”
Despite enthusiasm for the event, Newton said he’s still concerned about the rising COVID-19 cases.
“We will not be able to have the event with the current restrictions,” Newton said.
“A thousand people would not work for our event to be successful, so we’re obviously hoping that as vaccinations move forward, the hospitalizations and deaths go down and stay down.”
“Then we’re able to do our event by that time, either unrestricted or with minimal restrictions, but of course we don’t know what’s going to happen,” he said.
With so many unknowns, organizers have canceled many annual musical events — including the Hiawatha Traditional Music Festival, originally scheduled for mid-July.
According to Executive Director Susan Divine of the Hiawatha Music Co-op, cancellation was a difficult decision but is in the best interest and health of performers and festival goers.
Divine said it was the right call.
“Our board of directors really felt that we needed to take into consideration keeping everybody safe,” Divine said. “That was their primary goal was to be able to have a festival where everybody felt comfortable to come, including the performers. We feel like we made the best decision for Hiawatha.”
Divine said another concern was whether the organizers could financially afford to put on the festival with limits in crowd sizes. In a normal year, the festival draws 3,800-4,000 attendees.
Last year would have been the festival’s 42nd annual gathering. Divine said it may be disappointing to postpone the in-person celebration for the second year in a row, but there will be a virtual event held in its place..
According to Divine, some bands booked for last year’s festival agreed to do a pre-recorded one-hour concert.
With the help of a producer, Hiawatha will put together a 12-hour virtual festival that can be viewed the same weekend as the festival was to take place, she said.