Venue marquees mark a year of pandemic
On Saturday, March 13, it will be one year since the COVID19 pandemic brought live musical performances to an end. Now a coordinated campaign by independent music venues throughout the Bay Area and the U.S. is set to observe that grim landmark with messaging on their marquees.
The marquees will feature wording such as “One Year Dark” and “No Shows Since 3/13/20,” with social media hashtags to match. The exact wording on the signs will be left to the individual venues, said Jill DiBartolomeo of Another Planet Entertainment, who came up with the campaign.
“The plan is to take pictures and splash them across social media, just to let people have a sense of the impact of the pandemic,” she told The
Chronicle in a phone interview.
“There’s nothing else we’re getting at — there’s no ask, we’re not lobbying politicians the way we would another time.”
Among the Bay Area venues taking part are four operated by Another Planet: the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium and the Independent in San Francisco, the Fox Theater in Oakland, and Berkeley’s Greek Theater.
Some spots have already put up their signage in anticipation of the weekend. The marquee at the Independent, near Alamo Square, bears both suggested slogans.
More than a dozen other Bay Area venues are also participating, including Cafe du Nord and SF Jazz in San Francisco, Freight & Salvage in Berkeley and the Ritz in San Jose.
The initiative began in the Bay Area but spread to other California locations and other members of the National Independent Venue Association, an umbrella organization for music stages and performing arts theaters.
“It feels really cool to be working in conjunction with these venues, which to be honest are usually our competitors,” Di Bartolomeo said. “Having everyone working on the same team is really powerful.”
In a similar, though larger, collaborative effort in September, dubbed #RedAlertRESTART, more than 1,500 sports, arts and civic venues nationwide flooded their facades in red light to draw attention to the economic struggles of their workers.
The National Independent Venue Association has been active during the pandemic in support of performing arts venues. Those efforts have included these facade campaigns and a virtual Save Our Stages festival, hosted in October in partnership with YouTube and the association’s Emergency Relief Fund, which disbursed $3 million in grants in January.