Twenty-thousand lucky music fans in Waitangi, New Zealand were able to attend a concert over the weekend, marking the largest public outdoor performance in the country without any need for social distancing since the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the global live events industry last March.
According to reports, the public concert in Waitangi on Saturday (1/16) was the first of six planned shows by New Zealand pop band Six60 heading into the new year. With the isolated two-island nation managing so few COVID-19 infections, there was no need for socially distanced seating arrangements or masks for those in attendance. The band will continue onward with other planned performances in New Zealand cities including Hastings, New Plymouth, Christchurch, Wellington, and Hamilton.
“Being here and able to get together while the rest of the world basically can’t has really given us a good appreciation of how well our country has done in managing Covid and just how lucky we are,” singer Matiu Walters recently told news outlets. “I feel really proud that we have got our act together so well on Covid.”
A report from Metro goes on to state that New Zealand had only 76 active COVID-19 cases throughout the entire country heading into the weekend. Check out some of the images and fan-shot videos from Saturday’s concert shared on social media below.
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Saturday’s widely attended show in New Zealand comes as other countries like Spain are attempting to slowly and cautiously re-integrate concert events back into everyday life without resulting in a surge of COVID-19 cases. A recent study conducted by scientists in Germany also found that under proper conditions, music venues can drastically limit the amount of viral bacterial spread from person to person.
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In North America, event promoters are starting to plan for the return of festivals in parts of the country by September and October.
[H/T Metro]