BottleRock to ask for proof of vaccination
BottleRock Napa Valley festival organizers announced they will require attendees to prove they have been vaccinated for COVID19, or provide a negative coronavirus test, to attend this year’s music and food festival over Labor Day weekend.
Promoters LiveNation, BottleRock Presents and JaM Cellars said in a joint statement last week that festival workers will check documentation daily to ensure guests are vaccinated or negative for COVID19, citing the ongoing risk of the pandemic.
The soldout Wine Country event, however, is still on track to return Sept. 35, at the Napa Valley Expo, organizers said, with headliners Megan Thee Stallion, Guns N’ Roses, Foo Fighters, GEazy and Run the Jewels.
Masks will be recommended but not required, per guidelines issued by the California Department of Public Health. The festival will also use touchless wristbands for cashless transactions and offer hand sanitizing stations throughout the festival grounds.
Live event promoters in the Bay Area are on heightened alert after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a report that says the delta variant of the coronavirus is extremely contagious, can be spread even by fully vaccinated people and is causing more breakthrough infections than anticipated.
The report also found that the cycle threshold — a marker of how much virus an infected person has in their nasal swab, and thus how contagious they are — is similar in vaccinated and unvaccinated people. This means vaccinated people with COVID19, or breakthrough cases, may be able to spread the virus as easily as unvaccinated people with COVID.
“We strongly encourage all guests be fully vaccinated against COVID19,” promoters said in an email to ticket holders, adding that “in order to be fully vaccinated in time for BottleRock, you’ll need to have received your last Moderna or Pfizer (or single Johnson & Johnson) dose by August 20th.”
Organizers also ask that anyone exposed to the virus or showing symptoms does not attend the festival.
A separate set of new CDC data indicates the delta variant spreads as fast as chicken pox and faster than smallpox, Ebola, the 1918 flu, MERS, SARS and the common cold. The new evidence is from an internal CDC document.
An estimated 32,000 fully vaccinated people are getting symptomatic breakthrough infections each week among the 162 million vaccinated Americans, according to the document.
The data reinforces what was already becoming clear anecdotally in the
real world, including from recent clusters of new cases in the Bay Area: Breakthroughs are increasingly common with delta.
BottleRock’s announcement coincided with a similar requirement from Broadway producers saying that theatergoers will need to prove they have been vaccinated for COVID19 and masks will be required when theaters reopen in the coming weeks.
Earlier this month, BottleRock headliners Foo Fighters postponed a show scheduled to take place on July 17 at the Forum in Los Angeles due to a confirmed case of coronavirus within the band’s touring crew.
The band said in a statement it made the decision to push the L.A. show back “out of an abundance of caution and concern for the safety of the band, crew and most of all the fans.” The note did not mention who had tested positive or whether the person was hospitalized.
Foo Fighters are still slated to perform at BottleRock Napa Valley along with more than 80 acts, including Stevie Nicks and Miley Cyrus, both carryovers from the 2020 lineup of the threeday festival.
The luxe outdoor concert, which in past years hosted toptier touring acts alongside regional food and wine offerings for some 120,000 attendees every Memorial Day weekend, was canceled last year due to the COVID19 outbreak.