NEWPORT – For six months, purchasing concert tickets meant registering online, stub costs transitioned to suggested donations and attending meant tuning into Facebook Live or clicking a Zoom link. But the Newport Music Festival, which had to cancel its summer festival for the first time in its 52-year history, is making a comeback with live concerts.
From Oct. 12 to 14 at The Chanler at Cliff Walk, less than 100 attendees will be able to gather for a Fall mini festival, the organization announced on Friday. The concerts, featuring Charlie Albright, Neave Trio and Boyd Meets Girl will take place in a heated tent on the lawn of the Chanler. Each show will begin at 7:00 p.m. and attendees will be capped at 64 people per night, according to Newport Music Festival’s spokeswoman Dayla Arabella, to keep in line with local regulations.
“Safety first, then safety second and third. if we could not present these concerts with the utmost care for the safety of our attendees, staff and performers, we just would not do it,” said Suzanna Laramee, Newport Music Festival’s president and interim executive director.
Each show will feature contactless entry decked with hand sanitizer stations and symptom screening of all attendees, staff and volunteers. All staff and concert-goers will be required to properly wear masks and reserved parties will be required to social distance. Spacing will be regulated by the Festival’s staff and volunteers who have been trained and certified in COVID-19 safety protocols, according to an announcement.
The last time the Newport Music Festival hosted an in-person live show was “A Musical Christmas,” which ran on Dec. 7-8 at Emmanuel Church in Newport, well before the novel coronavirus pandemic reached Rhode Island’s shores.
Evan Smith, CEO of Discover Newport, said this mini concert series will be the first organized live musical event of this magnitude since the pandemic shut down gatherings in March.
“We know that live music is good for the soul. It is good for our mental health,” said Laramee. “However, those benefits and our collective desire to be physically together had to be measured against the feasibility of presenting the concerts with each and every safety protocol in place, and in accordance with local and state guidelines.”
Tickets will range in cost, depending on the show, from $75-$100 and can be purchased online on the Newport Music Festival’s website ahead of time.
