Out and About

Music venues, theaters navigate uncertain future

Legendary music venue Cat's Cradle has hosted Nirvana, Public Enemy, Joan Baez and Iggy Pop, but now the stages are dark.

Posted Updated

By
Sarah Krueger, WRAL reporter,
and
Kathy Hanrahan, Out
and
About editor
CARRBORO, N.C. — Legendary music venue Cat's Cradle has hosted Nirvana, Public Enemy, Joan Baez and Iggy Pop, but now the stages are dark.

The venue, which has been around for more than 50 years, closed its doors due to COVID-19 concerns nearly two months ago.

"Our last show was the Destroyers Show, fittingly enough, on Wednesday, March 11," operations manager Derek Powers said. "It's weird to walk into the venue, after walking in there thousands and thousands of times over the years. It doesn’t seem any different, but next week it’ll be two months since we’ve had a live show."

Owners have started a GoFundMe page to help pay employees while the space is closed due to COVID-19 concerns.

"Everyone's panicked and scared. They miss their friends. They miss live music. It’s a long list of things, none of which are very good," Powers said.

Powers said that there is no concrete information about when the venue will reopen, but he is booking artists for November.

"Obviously there would be vats of Purell, and I don’t know whether you can get people to wear masks while they’re watching music, and they drop their mask to drink their beer," Powers said. "I don’t know exactly what it looks like."

Cat's Cradle has a capacity of 750 people and has hosted thousands of concerts in its history.

Cat's Cradle has joined Haw River Ballroom in urging lawmakers to protect independent music venues and promoters as part of the Save Our Stages campaign. The movement was started by the National Independent Venue Association, which includes 1,200 independent music venues and promoters from across the country.

Summer concerts

In Raleigh, Red Hat Amphitheater's first show of the summer season was supposed to be Primus on June 7, but that show has been postponed. Megadeth and Lamb of God are scheduled to play the venue on June 14.

The Lumineers canceled all of their May and June concert dates, including June 2 show at Coastal Credit Union Music Park at Walnut Creek. The next scheduled show at that venue is Nickelback on June 19.

Carolina Theater of Durham has been preparing for when it can reopen its doors.

"We’ll put dots on seats where people can sit so they don’t have to figure it out themselves. And we will have measured a radius all around them," Carolina Theater of Durham CEO and President Rebecca Newton said, noting that people from the same household will be allowed to sit together.

Newton said that people will be asked to wear masks, and hand sanitizer will be on hand. She noted that they will be following a detailed plan.

Until they can reopen, the theater is selling its concessions to-go and plans to start live streaming some performances.

Newton is optimistic that they will be able to reopen for movies in mid-July and for larger performances in September.

First social distancing concert scheduled in Arkansas

While some venues are pivoting to airing live music online, a venue in Arkansas has announced that it will reopen for live music.

Singer Travis McCready will perform at the first socially distanced concert at TempleLive in Fort Smith, Arkansas, on May 15.

According to Ticketmaster, the venue will be only allowing 229 people in, despite the capacity to hold 1,100 people. In addition, a third-party vendor will be sanitizing the venue via fog sprayers, and all attendees and employees will be required to wear masks. Fans will be seated six feet apart, and there will be a 10 person limit in all restrooms. Attendees will also have to have their temperature taken before entering.

 Credits 

Copyright 2024 by Capitol Broadcasting Company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.