In Chattanooga over the past year, many concert venues have struggled to adapt to changes forced into place by COVID-19. There have only been a few events held since March, when the virus became more serious. In an exciting turnaround this month, several attempts at reopening in certain areas are being made with specific attention to distancing rules. For the first time since March of this year, the Tivoli and The Signal will be holding events locally.
In July, Chattanooga Unite: Healing and Uniting on the River, a music festival at the county-owned Tennessee RiverPark, was one of the first venues to attempt a safe concert in Chattanooga. It replaced the annual Riverbend Music Festival that has been running in Chattanooga since 1982.
In an article from the Chattanooga Times Free Press, Executive Director of Riverbend Mickey McCamish said, “It has helped the community in several ways...it does keep our doors open...and it also enables us to employ local musicians.”
In July when their events began, they had designated areas for groups of people to sit marked by paint circles on the grass. In an interview with the Times Free Press, local dentist and music festival enthusiast David Champion said, “We went the one time and felt completely safe...there was never more than two people in line at the beer/wine/spirits line…[the] bathroom was not an issue either.”
At the Tivoli re-opening the weekend of October 6, the same sort of distancing rules applied. There are about 1,700 seats in the theater, and only 225 were available. This was about 12% capacity. Masks were required in all areas of the building except when seated.
Nick Wilkinson, executive director of the Tivoli Foundation, told the Times Free Press, “We are excited to reopen, and we want to be safe and healthy for everyone so we can do more events.”
In 2018, operators at the Tivoli installed a new surround sound system and the biggest drop-down screen in North America. The operators also created the Bobby Stone Film Series that year. It is named after board member and film lover Bobby Stone, who died in 2018. The screen is 50 feet and covers the whole stage. From October 9 to 11, the movies “42,” “Back to the Future” and “Jurassic Park” were featured at the theater.
Wilkinson said, “We are excited about this program because we have North America’s greatest film system and we can put it to use.”
At The Signal, the new venue manager Allison Ciccarelli set the capacity for the venue at 20%, specifically 250 people. The Signal can hold around 1,300 people. The show will feature Whitney Morgan, and masks are required, with temperatures being taken at the door.
The re-opening of venues around Chattanooga has been a team effort. People all want to stay safe, and the way to do that is by planning explicitly how to make venues accessible in socially distanced, clean ways. McCamish said in a Times Free Press article from September, “Even the musicians were making the announcements [at the concert], and it was very much along the lines of ‘we are all in this together, and if we want to keep doing these types of events, we need to take care of each other.’”