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Today's read ... 8️⃣ minutes

Headliner Charlie Jennings is listening to 'Born For One Thing' by Gojira

Festivals continue to bet on September, though some require a passport to attend; our Headliner explains how his pivot to TV from live events was a natural progression (but he can't wait pivot back); and join us on Thursday for a  BOH Clubhouse Conversation on COVID Mitigation Ops.

Back of House was sad to hear of the passing of Front Gate GM, Ben Taylor. Ben was a leader in our industry, a mentor, and a friend and will be missed tremendously.

Ultra Music Festival is being sued for allegedly denying refunds for the 2020 event that was cancelled due to COVID-19.

The application for the $16 billion US Shuttered Venue Operators Grant relief fund opened on April 8, but due to a technical system crash, no applications were received. They have no relaunch date but are hoping to get it running as soon as possible. 

Despite rising COVID-19 cases, Ohio released a “simplified set of health orders,” which includes lifting the restrictions on mass gatherings.

The Texas Rangers hosted a sold-out crowd of over 38,000 attendees for their first home game with no capacity restrictions and a lot of missing masks (photos). It was the first professional sporting event to not limit capacity. In other news, the MLB is offering frontline workers $1.5 million in free tickets.

Starting April 24, Singapore will allow non-socially distanced shows of at maximum 750 attendees with pre-testing. However, attendees will be split into zones of 50 people. 

The UK revealed an additional £400 million in grants and loans for the Culture Recovery Fund, supporting culture and heritage organizations, of which Glastonbury is receiving £900,000. 

Starting April 8, Ontario entered its third lockdown, requiring everyone to stay home except for essential purposes for at least one month. This order includes the banning of indoor gatherings of more than five people, making virtual concerts from venues impossible.

New Zealand and Australia will enact a “travel bubble,” which will allow people, including touring artists, two-way travel with no quarantine requirement. However, officials warn that an outbreak could cause border closures again.

From a private island to cycling, music, and comedy, new festivals in the UK like One Island Festival and Velio Festival are seeking to create a new festival experience.

Check out Pitchfork’s 36 best live music venues in the US, and hear what their workers have to say about surviving the pandemic.

Countries and Events Pave Way for Vaccine Passports

California will allow indoor gatherings, including concerts, theaters, and sporting events, to restart on April 15 with limited capacity. These events will require guests to either present a negative test or proof of vaccination. California officials are aiming to fully reopen the economy by mid-June. The Netherlands announced a series of 90 limited-capacity pilot concerts to occur over nine days this month, implementing the CoronaCheck app, which will prove if attendees have received a negative test within the past 40 hours. The UK also plans to host pilot events without vaccine requirements, but will be experimenting with different social distancing and ventilation measures. England residents will also now have the option of two weekly COVID-19 tests to help the reopening process. Israel has organized a vaccine passport program (paywall) that distributes “green passes” to everyone who has received both doses of the vaccine, which has sped up the restart of concerts. For more information on vaccine passports, Vox has Everything You Need to Know.

The discussion and implementation of vaccine and testing requirements for events are taking center stage. The NBA has just finalized a partnership with Clear Health Pass with the intention of having fans link vaccination records to the app for entry purposes. Similarly, the Ubbi Dubbi Festival, scheduled for April 24-25, will also be implementing Clear, requiring attendees to either pass a health screening or show proof of vaccination. City Winery has also partnered with Clear to do temperature checks, health screenings, and test results. As previously mentioned, the state of New York has developed the Excelsior Pass with IBM for large and small venues to implement soon. In an open letter to PM Boris Johnson, several of the UK’s sports organizations have deemed vaccine passports a viable option for returning to events. The governor of Florida signed an executive order banning all businesses, even private, from requiring proof of vaccination. Separately, the Cincinnati Reds are offering discounted tickets to fans who are vaccinated. 

@assistantsvsagents via instagram

September Shapes Up As Golden Month for Rescheduled Events

• Las Vegas’ Electric Daisy Carnival is just 43 days away and their safety plan has just been rejected. Organizers claim that more details on safety precautions and the lineup are on their way.

• New Jersey’s Sea.Hear.Now Festival to be headlined by Pearl Jam, Smashing Pumpkins, and The Avett Brothers is scheduled and selling tickets for September 18-19, 2021.

• California’s Ohana Festival, to be headlined by Kings of Leon, Eddie Vedder, and Pearl Jam, is scheduled and selling tickets for September 24-26, 2021.

• Festivals to take place this fall are stacking up. From radius clauses to artist availability to industry competition, read more on what “A Beautiful Mess” this fall might be.

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A live entertainment industry veteran of twenty years, Charlie Jennings started his career during high school in Bristol, TN, by promoting and selling out a concert with world-renowned, Grammy award-winning artists Bela Fleck and Edgar Meyer. Jennings graduated from Wofford College with a B.A. in Philosophy. He later became VP at AC Entertainment and then SVP of Operations at Danny Wimmer Presents and now owns Grey Street Events, an event management and consulting firm, with his wife and longtime business partner Brandy Blaylock. Outside (and often at) work, he is a nerd for heavy metal music, culinary arts, sci-fi, mid-century design and architecture, drums, animation, bird-watching, tiki, superheroes, and craft beer and wine.

In the fall of 2019, Charlie and his wife/business partner, Brandy Blaylock formed Grey Street Events. Charlie’s on-site production skills were the perfect complement to Brandy’s ticketing and customer service skills and they began to work with small clients who didn’t have the staff to pull off events, and larger companies who had so much going on that they needed to outsource their events. 2020 was going to be their breakout year, including tentpole events Pilgrimage and Bonnaroo and in several of Superfly’s experiential events.Then 2020 happened.

"I wasn’t expecting to work in TV, but it turns out that so many things on a TV set are similar to what we do in live events,” says Charlie. 

When do you expect to work your first festival: 

Or

63% of BOH readers' agree that Dave Grohl is better on the  drums.

▶️  Have a passion for electronic music? Universal Music Group is looking for an A&R Coordinator for Astralwerks in Hollywood, CA.▶️  Apply to be the Box Office Manager at BJCC Complex in Birmingham, AL.▶️  Cirque du Soleil is hiring a Finance Director in Las Vegas, NV.▶️  iHeartRadio is seeking a full-time Ticketing Manager for the National Programming Group in New York, NY.

▶️  Everyone in the event industry is invited to take part in EventWell’s #Step300k challenge to support mental health and wellbeing in events.▶️  New Music Watch: St. Vincent’s highly anticipated new album, Daddy’s Home, will be released on May 14. Watch her perform two of the singles on SNL.▶️  BizBash has event professionals discuss what collaborative tools, platforms, and content are helping them do their job today!

THIS THURSDAY: Join Back of House for our  Festival ALL CALL as we dive deep into what it actually takes to mitigate COVID on site at events! 

April 13: Digital Media Wire is discussing the future of media and entertainment featuring the head of architecture and engineering of Warner Media Group, Forbes Contributing Writer and Revenue Strategist and the Media and Entertainment leaders at Tech Mahindra and Grant Thornton.

May 11: The Vendry is sitting down with Jon Barker, Head of Live Event Production & Operations at the NFL, to discuss his team's 360 degree approach to event production, catering to everyone in the stands and watching at home.

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