A group of live music concert venues and entertainment businesses joined together to write a letter to D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, asking that she follow similar paths as other cities and states to allow their venues to fully reopen on July 1st.
The group, which consists of I.M.P. entities The 9:30 Club, The Anthem, The Lincoln Theater, as well as Monumental Sports, the company which runs the city's sports teams and venues, is proposing that they be allowed to operate at full capacity starting July 1st, two months after all adults were eligible to get vaccinated.
The letter reads:
“This benchmark…will enable us to start the process of booking concerts, events, and games for audiences in the late summer and fall of this year. If we can’t predict with any certainty when our venues will be fully open for business, booking agents will opt to schedule their performing acts at venues in Maryland, Virginia, and elsewhere, which could create new touring behaviors, a potentially negative result for our industry and for all of the small business owners that rely on us to drive traffic to their neighboring bars, restaurants, and other establishments that are the life-blood of a healthy, vibrant city and key to attracting tourists to D.C.”
The venues also offered help in marketing vaccines to the public using their billboards, transportation for those in need of a ride to get vaccinated and performing outreach campaigns.
D.C. has not yet announced a date for a full reopening, sans mask-wearing. Virginia Governor Ralph Northam has set a target of mid-June for most pandemic restrictions.
Read More: DCist.com