Many concerts and tours have started to be scheduled, again, bringing with them a lot of excitement and anticipation for what this could mean in terms of gaining back a sense of normalcy.

    While the majority of confirmed tour dates are far in the future or do not have a tour in the United States, this is still a step in the right direction. Girl in Red is one of those artists: her “Make it Go Quiet” tour is confirmed for the U.K. and Europe in 2022. Many fans all over the U.S. bought tickets for 2020 shows and were never able to get refunded or have a rescheduled show. So this recent development shines a light onto a possibility of a new United States tour. 

    However, unlike Girl in Red, other artists have been able to reschedule their past cancelled shows, especially their U.S. tours. Some of these artists include Maroon 5, The Weeknd, Justin Bieber, Green Day, Fall Out Boy, Tame Impala, and Weezer. All of these popular singers and bands bring to light that normalcy is beginning to come back into our lives- starting with the entertainment industry. 

   Junior, Alyssa Sparacco “was vaguely familiar with the concept of artists rescheduling things after covid.” However, they state, “even though I am really happy that some of them can get back to doing what they love I feel like they should wait at least another few months. It could be irresponsible if rules aren’t followed properly, which has a very high chance of happening at a concert.”  

    In addition, they“also feel as though despite the toxic positivity about the pandemic being spewed out by corporations and celebrities, we need to realize that we aren’t out of the woods yet. We still need to be safe. And like I said before, the chances of that happening in a concert are very low.” 

    However is “toxic positivity” the problem surrounding our current society’s views of the pandemic or is it just an increased responsibility in one’s own health? That also begs the question that if someone gets the COVID-19 vaccine, does that give them the authority on their own to gauge whether or not it is safe to attend these social gatherings? 

    Grace Herron, Junior, answers this question. “People should be able to gauge their safety. At this point we should try to go out and make things normal but with safety measures of course,” comments Herron. 

    Herron did know about the recent increase in concerts, adding that because of that “things are starting to get bad again so I’m not surprised” due to the apparent lack of safety measures. She is” super excited to go to a Tyler the Creator concert and a Kendrick concert! Those are two artists who I’ve listened to for years and it would make me so happy to see them.” These tours are “a good step in the right direction,” according to Herron, “we need to open everything eventually.”