I wanted to begin today's post with the latest on the Ontario and Michigan shutdown orders and the status of concert venues in our area, specifically relating to Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer's announcement yesterday that bars and restaurants in the Upper Peninsula and much of Northern Michigan can start re-opening with precautions on Friday. Click here or visit your preferred state news source for full details on the announcement. Chippewa County only has 2 confirmed COVID-19 cases and no deaths, so it's easy to see why the Soo is part of the first sections of Michigan to start re-opening. If bars and restaurants choose to re-open on Friday, they must limit capacity to 50% and enforce social distancing guidelines and safety precautions. However, social gatherings are still limited to 10 or fewer people, and municipal governments can enforce stricter rules if necessary. That all said, what does this mean for concerts going forward?
As of late, our Sault Michigan concert calendar had been primarily centered around the local Kewadin Casinos and Tarnished's weekly matinees at Biggby Coffee, with some exceptions. Between such businesses having to run at half capacity in the near term, and the social gathering limitations, I would be surprised to see either rush into concerts as we know them, and Biggby have not addressed their imminent plans on Facebook at press time. Before yesterday's announcement, Kewadin had announced (after multiple prior delays) that they would be re-opening on June 1st, and Governor Whitmer did not directly cite casinos in the first wave of business re-openings, so that may hold true yet. Stay tuned to Kewadin Casino's online pages for further details, especially with three touring out of town bands (The Lows, Peril, and Tripp 'N' Dixie) still scheduled to play in Sault Ste. Marie and St. Ignace's lounges over the June 12th weekend, though I'd be very surprised if they occur as normal.Finally, there has been no comparable announcement from the Ontario government at press time regarding bars & nightclubs, though Premier Doug Ford had already announced that, as of today, stores with a street entrance can start re-opening with appropriate guidelines (source here.) As such, SMS-relevant retailers like The Rad Zone and Vintage Games N' Junque have started re-opening with a minimum capacity. If you choose to go out to a re-opened store this week, please use common sense to keep yourself and everyone else safe and coronavirus-free. We'll have more on the pandemic as it relates to bands and concerts when it rolls in!
Let's move into a happier topic to finish this post, specifically from Fairmounts frontman/Inner City Surfers drummer Mikey Hawdon, whose series of "Quarantunes" (a.k.a. "Mikey & His Uke" videos) are definitely gaining steam now that they are on YouTube! Yesterday, Mikey got some major attention on Global News at 5:30 PM, which you may have saw locally on channel 3 on Shaw Cable or 12.2 on an over-the-air antenna. The 2½ minute piece by long-time Global correspondent Susan Hay features Mikey talking about how he re-discovered his ukelele, the pandemic's impact on his day job, the spread of his quarantune videos, and their impact on him personally. No mention of his individual bands, but he does rep for home with a Greyhounds toque! This is a well done report that will hopefully get Mikey even more attention for this daily series, and while Global doesn't allow external embedding of their videos, click here to see the whole thing!
That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news on the site tomorrow! Thanks everyone!
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