CONCERT PLAN approved for Fort Smith venue.

FORT SMITH — A music venue’s plan to move a concert from Friday to Monday has been approved by the Arkansas Department of Health, said Meg Mirivel, a spokeswoman for the agency.

TempleLive had been at odds with Gov. Asa Hutchinson and the Department of Health over the venue’s plan to have the concert Friday night, which was three days before the state was allowing large indoor venues to open since closing them in March because of the covid-19 pandemic.

Dr. Nate Smith, Arkansas’ Secretary of Health, issued a cease-and-desist order against TempleLive on Tuesday night.

Then, on Thursday, agents from the Arkansas Alcoholic Beverage Division went to the venue and “ripped” its liquor license from the wall, Mike Brown of TempleLive said during a news conference later that day.

An order from ABC Director Doralee Chandler said the permit was being suspended because “This business is not operating in the public interest, and poses a danger to the public health, safety and welfare.”

According to the order, the permit would be returned if the venue announced the concert wouldn’t take place Friday.

Brown announced Thursday the concert would be moved to Monday.

“At the end of the day, we fought the law and the law’s won,” he said during the TempleLive news conference.

Besides moving the concert date, the Department of

Health is also requiring people at the concert to wear face masks.

In its original plan submitted to the Health Department, TempleLive stated “masks will be available for purchase if desired.”

In the plan approved by the state, all TempleLive employees and all audience members older than 10 must wear face coverings.

The Health Department also specified the performers maintain a minimum of 12 feet from the audience, which wasn’t in TempleLive’s original plan.

The approved plan will allow TempleLive to have 239 people seated in the 1,100-seat venue, which is a former Masonic Temple.

Beginning Monday, large venues in Arkansas can open, but if they plan to have a

crowd of more than 50 they must file a plan with the state Health Department.

Temperatures will be checked for people entering TempleLive for the concert Monday night.

Also, groups will be seated at least 6 feet from other people. Both of those things, as well as several other precautions, were in TempleLive’s original plan.

The concert by Travis McCready had gotten national media attention.

The New York Times and Rolling Stone magazine said McCready’s solo performance at TempleLive would have been the first large concert in the U.S. since the pandemic began.

McCready is the frontman of Bishop Gunn, a blues-rock band from Natchez, Miss.

Whether the concert, now scheduled for Monday, will still be the first large concert in the nation wasn’t clear Friday.