The tour is on... The tour is off... The tour is on again!
Today is January 15th. Always a notable day because it's Martin Luther King, Jr's birthday, but today it's also the first 15th of the month in half a year that millions of parents around the US awoke to find their bank accounts had not gotten another pandemic-inspired infusion of cash from the IRS, including this one. (MLK would not be impressed by this development.)
But on a Reuters article I find online, and soon thereafter from various other news sources, a couple days earlier I had gotten the word that Denmark was going to ease the restrictions that went into force a few weeks ago, when Omicron hit. Friends who have a bigger touring operation and have to plan everything far more in advance than I do already started canceling their plans for February a month ago. I had given myself a deadline of January 18th before I canceled any plans, which I reasoned would be one month before I would be flying to Denmark, enough advance time to get a good price on a plane ticket and rental car, if I didn't cancel.
The Danish government has a webpage where current Covid restrictions are enumerated, including the one most relevant to me, the music venues being closed. But since the recent announcement from the Danish health minister that was reported on in Reuters, the government website features a banner up top telling us that things are going to be updated on January 18th. At which point, presumably, the notification about music venues being closed will change, reflecting the updated pandemic battle plan/balancing act, where venues are open, as long as audiences are all seated, and not singing along with me.
It's a strange pandemic roller-coaster to be on, hearing in the news about the desperate shortages of doctors, nurses, janitors, blood, and so many other things, in the hospitals where the latest wave of the pandemic is hitting now. Even as the Danish hospitals are also very crowded, they've had enough experience with this pandemic to see that this wave appears set to subside, so they can afford to open up a bit.
Although there are differences of opinion on best practices within Danish society as well, it's pretty obvious when you compare the way Denmark has navigated the pandemic to the way England or Texas has navigated it, that Covid-related restrictions imposed in Denmark are done with the physical and mental health of society, especially children, being at least as important as the economy. So while I as a touring artist feel very conflicted about the idea of setting up a tour in England or Texas -- both in terms of my personal responsibilities in such a situation as well as in terms of who's going to show up under the circumstances -- when it comes to doing a tour in Denmark, I can at least be comparatively much more confident that if they're allowing gigs to happen again, it probably means there's a bit of hospital capacity at the time, at least. From prior experience doing a tour in Denmark last August, during another relative lull in the pandemic waves, the health ministry saying venues can be open again also tends to mean most people feel comfortable going into them again -- unlike in places where the government is far less trusted, such as England or Texas.
So, whereas for the past several weeks I have often been wondering what I might do with myself for the months of February and March -- what we could call the imminent future from a professional DIY touring standpoint -- as suddenly as the Danish health minister made an announcement, my tour plans were back on again. At this stage there are no gigs confirmed, but from the chatter on social media this seems likely to change soon. I had been just about to make concrete plans with various folks before the Omicron wave had the Danish government shutting everything down again.
Of course there are other things that could easily affect my February-March travel plans in Denmark and Iceland -- another volcanic eruption, a war between Russia and Ukraine, a new Covid variant, and who knows what else. But as things stand now, I've got my booster shot scheduled, and I'll be making travel arrangements, and hopefully confirming some gigs, over the next few days. The plan is to be in Denmark from February 18-28 and Iceland from March 1-6.
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