New Orleans To Allow Live Music For The First Time In A Year - Forbes

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Topline

After a decline in coronavirus cases, New Orleans will move forward with its reopening plans, including allowing live music to return to its establishments for the first time in a year.

Key Facts

The city’s third reopening phase Friday morning, Mayor LaToya Cantrell told reporters Wednesday, and live entertainment will be permitted to resume at bars, concert and music halls and other venues, as long as the businesses follow capacity limits, enforce the mask mandate and obtain necessary permits beforehand.

Under this phase singing, karaoke and performing wind-blown instruments also will be allowed indoors.

The new phase also allows for some city businesses to operate under higher occupancy capacities: restaurants, shops and beauty salons can serve up to 75% of customers up from a max of 50%, and indoor bars that don’t serve food can serve up to 50% of customers, up from 25%.

New cases of coronavirus in New Orleans fell dramatically in recent weeks after peaking in early January, and the rate of positive tests has dropped to about 1.6%, Cantrell said Wednesday, one of the lowest rates in Louisiana.

The city is also making headway with administering vaccines, with about one in five parish residents having received at least their first dose.

Crucial Quote

“People have demonstrated civic trust, and they are doing the right thing to get us where we are today,” Cantrell said Wednesday. “Collectively, we’ve been putting in the work.”

Surprising Fact

New Orleans has not permitted live music in most businesses since the city first locked down in late March 2020. It’s been a major loss of revenue for the city, as tourism took a deep dive last year. In November, tourism leaders said the city was losing about $125 million a week in tourist spending. The city’s annual Jazz Fest, which was cancelled for the year in 2020, typically brings in around $300 million to the city’s economy, according to media reports. Celebrations for Mardi Gras, the city’s biggest annual event, were effectively cancelled in 2021 after the city closed all bars and banned parades. Mardi Gras brings in an annual $1 billion to New Orleans, according to an analysis by Wallethub.

Key Background

New Orleans was one of the hardest-hit U.S. cities in the early days of the pandemic. Last year’s Mardi Gras is believed to have been one of the country’s first coronavirus superspreader events, and likely played a role in the city seeing some of the nation’s highest coronavirus transmission and death rates in the following months.