Halsey has canceled her Summerfest 2021 show.
Though it’s only one cancellation, it’s prompting concern for an industry still reeling from the pandemic.
“Right now, Summerfest is scheduled to be a series of three three-day weekends starting June 24,” Piet Levy, music critic at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel tells WTMJ.
Summerfest officials say they are full steam ahead, but Levy admits there are “a lot of questions if it can actually happen then.”
There are many factors that will play into the decision. The musicians, safety, health, and also finances.
“You lose a lot of money if you’re doing a socially-distant, 25% capacity kind of show,” says Levy. “Summerfest is designed as a business model to pack as many people in as they can.”
Levy thinks that in order for Summerfest to return like normal, we would need about 75% of the population to be vaccinated.
“There’s hopeful optimism we can reach that by the end of summer perhaps and then things can kind of go back to normal for the concert industry. I think that’s what makes this June date for Summerfest, while hopeful, there is a lot of concern that it can’t happen quite in that window.”
For the full interview with Levy on Wisconsin’s Morning News, click in the player above.