We Keep Us Safe: COVID-19 Concerns at Student Concert
Benedetto Maniscalco | February 24, 2022
Quinn Bonney
Russell playing guitar at a student concert in Kittredge recital hall.
A COVID-19 safety concern at the student concert held in Kittredge recital hall on February 13 was cause for confrontation and continued discussion in the following week.
There was at least one individual unmasked at the concert. Despite continued confrontation from multiple people asking the individual to wear their mask, the person would only put it on for short periods of time before taking it off again.
Harley Woods, a junior writing major who was in the audience, mentioned how it had caused a noticeable reaction from everyone attending the concert.
“There was a really large area around the person without a mask, where people clearly did not want to stand next to them,” Woods said.
Woods explained that some of their friends, who are immunocompromised, had to leave the concert because of the potential health risks from individuals not following COVID-19 safety protocols.
“People started to leave and I saw people giving each other looks and talking about this person and just generally avoiding them,” Woods said.
There was a large range of annoyance within the reactions of mask-wearing crowd members. Walker Russell, a junior music major who was in charge of setting up the sound and lighting equipment and who played in the second band, Mass, felt that it was disrespectful and caused unneeded diversion from the show.
“A lot of people were pissed off by it and a lot of people hated it,” Russell said.
As the night went on and people began to get increasingly impatient, the individual continued to disrupt the concert by talking loudly during quieter sets.
“Then they were just rude for the rest of the concert, not shutting … up when people were playing quiet music, which I noticed,” Russell said.
Tyson Lewis, a first-year creative writing major, mentioned how during their band Omniphonia’s set, the guitarist started it off by asking the individual to please wear their mask and stopped another song to ask again.
“My guitarist literally stopped playing guitar to ask this person to put a mask on, which distracts from everyone having fun and being able to attend a show and it subtracts from us being able to play our music,” Lewis said.
While many people tried their best to solve the situation, there were many more keeping their distance and complaining to their peers.
“I think that less people should be afraid to say something about COVID safety because it is something that affects everyone whether or not you know it,” Woods said. “To see that many people concerned but afraid to say something about it was kind of sad and kind of shocking, especially since people here care so much about (the) safety and comfort of students.”
As stated by Woods, many people seem unsure of what steps to take when they see someone putting others at risk and not following rules put in place to help stop the spread of COVID-19.
“I wish more people felt comfortable advocating for their safety,” Woods said.
Woods included that there may have been other measures that could’ve been taken that night.
“Maybe someone could have called Public Safety and had her escorted out because they were not following COVID safety guidelines because these are things we enforce at the college, and no one was there to enforce it so it was shoved on the students’ responsibility,” Woods said
Lewis included that this really falls on the maskless student’s responsibility and that there was not much else that could be done.
“Other than that person taking responsibility for themselves, I don’t really see how else it could have been handled,” Lewis said.
Lewis concluded that, while this was an annoyance and potential health risk, it was outweighed by the positives of the evening.
“Overall it was a good concert, and a lot of people came out and played, and a lot of people came out and listened,” Lewis said. “The one person is probably nothing in comparison to the rest of the night.”