Due to COVID-19, entertainers have been unable to perform live. For most artists, performing live in front of thousands of their fans is one of the most important things.

Sadly, artists had no other choice but to postpone their events or completely cancel them. This obviously left fans sad and frustrated, but most people understand why it had to happen.

COVID has left an impact on many experiences, but people have found ways around traditional experiences. Restaurants have moved to outdoor seating, meetings can be held on Zoom, and drive through museums and movies are on the rise.

Virtual concerts have also started happening more frequently, but many fans complain that it’s simply not the same experience this way.

Although many artists have been creative and found new and interesting ways to connect with their fans, it’s hard to replicate the feeling of a live concert.

There’s really nothing like seeing your favorite musicians live in concert and being a part of a massive crowd of people. These live shows are the highlight of many people’s year, so them being impossible to attend now has put a damper on many people’s moods.

While people have proposed the idea of socially distanced concerts with mask mandates, it’d be rather hard to actually achieve such a thing.

The concert experience would not be the same being socially distanced, and people would remove their masks to eat or drink.

Dr. Kristen Dean, board-certified physician and medical director at Doctor on Demand said that, “The social aspect of traditional live music concerts makes it difficult to transition to a scenario where concertgoers are asked to enjoy the music in a socially distanced setting.”

She definitely brings up a valid point, for many people would still be dissatisfied with their concert experience in a socially distanced environment.

In addition to this, experts agree that the virus needs to be much more under control for live events to take place again. They suggest a herd immunity, meaning 75% of the population must have received the vaccine or survived the infection.

The U.S. is nowhere near this point, and attempting to reach that level without a vaccine will most likely cost us millions of lives.

Concerts are fun, but they’re not worth losing that many lives over. The CDC says that a vaccine most likely won’t be available until mid-2021 for average Americans, so there will be a bit of time before we are able to attend these events again.

If you’re anything like me, you had plans to attend live events this year that were eventually postponed. This was the year I was going to see all the artists that I’ve been waiting to see. I had the opportunity to get tickets to go see Harry Styles with my best friend the day after my birthday this year. Now, we have to wait until next September to hopefully be able to see him in concert.

I can’t lie, these events being canceled have been some of the worst impacts of the pandemic on me. These were the events I was most looking forward to, and having them be canceled is heartbreaking. Especially since we really don’t know when we’ll be able to attend events like these again. There’s so much unknown, and concerts are obviously not the number one priority right now.

At the rate everything is going, I wouldn’t be opposed to a socially distanced concert, but I also know the experience wouldn’t be quite the same. That’s one of the major reasons I’m okay with waiting it out. I truly understand that safety should be our number one priority.

It might not be fun to wait it out, but experiencing a real concert when everything is better will be well worth the wait.