New Orleans Jazz Competition canceled amid surge in COVID-19 circumstances in Louisiana
The music has died in New Orleans, a minimum of for October, because the nation’s rising variety of Delta variant circumstances has led to the cancellation of one of many metropolis’s largest annual sights subsequent to Mardi Gras.
Organizers on Monday introduced the cancellation of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Competition, citing in a put up on the competition’s web site, “the present exponential progress of recent COVID circumstances in New Orleans and the area.” It’s the second yr in a row the annual music competition has been snuffed out by the pandemic.
Headliners for this yr’s occasion — which normally attracts half 1,000,000 guests to the Crescent Metropolis — have been to incorporate musical artists and bands starting from Stevie Nicks and H.E.R. to the Foo Fighters, Nora Jones, Elvis Costello, Wu-Tang Clan and Jon Batiste. In a tweet on July 24, the competition introduced the addition of the Rolling Stones, for which it had added an unprecedented additional day to the two-weekend occasion, which earlier this yr had been rescheduled for October from its unique dates in spring.
Ticket holders for the 2021 competition might be despatched an e mail with particulars on refunds or rollovers, in accordance with the cancellation put up. Subsequent yr’s occasion is scheduled for April 29 to Could 8, 2022.
“Within the meantime, we urge everybody to observe the rules and protocols put forth by public well being officers, in order that we will all quickly expertise collectively the enjoyment that’s Jazz Fest,” organizers mentioned.
The Jazz Fest’s cancellation comes simply as COVID circumstances in Louisiana have skyrocketed. The Louisiana Division of Well being reported 6,100 new circumstances as of Monday. Public well being officers say the state’s low vaccination fee is partly in charge for the spike.
Canceling the competition means the New Orleans area will miss out on an estimated $300 million in financial affect the occasion brings yearly.
The Delta variant is answerable for the nation’s exponential surge, in accordance with the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention, which is reminding People that the COVID-19 vaccines do work. Whereas a current outbreak of breakthrough circumstances has proven the Delta variant to be significantly sturdy and contagious, the low variety of vaccinated individuals falling severely in poor health reveals the vaccines are “efficient in opposition to hospitalization and dying,” in accordance with the CDC.
The rising unfold of coronavirus circumstances has additionally compelled organizers to cancel the New York Worldwide Auto Present. The annual present is usually the largest conference gathering in New York Metropolis annually, drawing greater than 1 million guests to the Jacob Javits Conference Middle in Manhattan for a multiday occasion that generates thousands and thousands of {dollars} in income for native companies.
Issues over the Delta variant haven’t deterred bikers, nonetheless, who rumbled into South Dakota on Friday for the beginning of the Sturgis Motorbike Rally. The ten-day gathering, now in its 81st yr, is predicted to attract as many as 700,000 guests to the small city of seven,000, producing an estimated $800 million in gross sales for the native economic system.
