Sanity check: concert in the UK?
April 4, 2022 10:03 AM   Subscribe

I am flying from Berlin to Manchester tomorrow to see my parents. My fave band ever (ADF) are playing in town on Thurs. Is there ANY way I can go to the gig?

I (44) have had three jabs as have my parents (71). I will be taking a PCR before flying, wearing an FFP2 in shops, on public transport etc, and bringing lateral flow tests with to use before I visit anyone, which will be outdoors as far as possible. My favourite band from my YOUTH are playing at Band on the Wall on Thurs. The only venue guidance is "please take a Lateral Flow Test and consider getting fully vaccinated"(!!). I am staying at my parents' house. Will be asking my friends' and family's opinions, but: is there ANY way I can responsibly go to the gig? Does anyone wear masks at gigs in the UK at the mo?
(also: what is the culture w/r/t masks in Manchester / ENGLISH cities? Am I likely to get hassle for wearing a mask on the bus etc?)

Grateful for any reasonably gently worded doses of reality, ta.
posted by runincircles to Health & Fitness (15 answers total)
 
Masks have always been about protecting others, not yourself, and I'm not sure there's a standard practice for protecting oneself from others besides vaccination and isolation. Maybe check the current advice on self-quarantine after probable exposure, which the US CDC has at 5 days right now. Depending on how long you're there, doing the full protocol could be practical no matter what happens at the show.

That said, I think you can go and satisfy any level of risk tolerance you need while doing so, which is to say that you could wear a hazmat suit with a powered respriator if you wanted (maybe more appropriate for an Altern-8 reunion, but I digress). Put some el-wire on it and maybe they'll even put you on stage!
posted by rhizome at 10:31 AM on April 4, 2022 [1 favorite]


Mask use in the UK, at least in the major city where I live, is very low. It's encouraged on public transport, so you'll see a few people wearing them there. On an average trip to a supermarket, I see around 1 in 10 wearing a mask now. Signs in shops now say things like "please feel free to wear a mask", and not "please wear a mask".

Unsurprisingly, the infection rate in the UK is really high right now. Airlines are cancelling flights because of lack of staff, schools are struggling with staff and pupil absences, and the health service is under a lot of pressure, with a massive backlog waiting for treatment. People are no longer expected to self-isolate, so you can expect to be sharing spaces with infected people any time you go out.

You likely won't get any hassle for wearing a mask. Well, maybe if you're out in the evening and there are drunk people about.
posted by pipeski at 10:45 AM on April 4, 2022 [2 favorites]


If you’re staying with your parents, I don’t think you can go to the concert without putting them at risk :(
posted by sixswitch at 11:16 AM on April 4, 2022 [2 favorites]


I'm in the US, fully vaxxed, and recently made the choice to go to the movies for the first time since before Covid. We -- me, Mr. Blah & Kid Blah -- wore our masks the whole time, and did not take them off to eat or drink. It's a calculation, that's for sure. I don't regret doing it.

I am a firm believer in strong mask mandates (which are mostly not happening where I live, dammit) and hate the way we're just leaving the immunocompromised to fend for themselves. And I also believe that it's okay to take small, calculated risks that take your personal circumstances into consideration. So, in your case I'd go.
posted by BlahLaLa at 11:19 AM on April 4, 2022 [2 favorites]


(also: what is the culture w/r/t masks in Manchester / ENGLISH cities? Am I likely to get hassle for wearing a mask on the bus etc?)

I live outside one of the larger cities (Birmingham). I wear a mask everywhere. Never seen anyone hassled nor have I been hassled.

Similar to pipeski, in my area only about 1 out of 10 people are wearing masks.

If you want to do any going out/shopping I'd recommend early morning because there are fewer people out and more people wearing masks in general at that time.
posted by Ms. Moonlight at 11:22 AM on April 4, 2022


London, and same. No hassle, more masks on buses/tubes/trains than anywhere else but adherence (to what guidance?) very very low compared to even Christmas 2021 when we were in our last wave.

I've been to two live gigs in 2022 and I literally saw only one person wearing a mask.
posted by Ten Cold Hot Dogs at 11:35 AM on April 4, 2022


Manchester: few people wearing masks on buses and nobody looking at you funny if you do wear a mask. Band on the Wall are really unlikely to enforce their stance on masks and vaccination, but your QR code for your vaccinations should be readable by them.

UK: essentially it's everyone for themselves, despite 60,000+ live cases, double our first and second lockdown triggers. So make a decision if you take extra risk from the hot, sweaty, alcohol-lubricated concert venue to your parents on top of flying in from another city.
posted by k3ninho at 12:01 PM on April 4, 2022


It'll be fine to wear a mask at the gig if you go. There is however a very high chance that someone in the crowd will be infectious.

It's really a choice you have to make yourself and with your parents' input. My parents (late 60s, triple vaccinated) both recently had covid and just had a couple of days feeling unwell, but it was concerning to hear that they had contracted it.
posted by knapah at 12:08 PM on April 4, 2022 [1 favorite]


UK: essentially it's everyone for themselves

etc.

*Mutters quietly* England, not UK. Scotland still has a mask mandate on public transport and shops. Realise it’s not relevant for this question but can we not do the “England = UK” thing? Thanks!
posted by penguin pie at 3:29 PM on April 4, 2022 [10 favorites]


Masks have always been about protecting others, not yourself

This is misleading. Yes, there was a stage in the pandemic that this was a line public health officials used to encourage young or reckless people to mask too, but masking also offerings protection to the person wearing it. This graph is a helpful visualization, though as the article makes clear, it shouldn't be taken literally.

Do you have friends in town you could stay with instead of your parents?
posted by coffeecat at 3:29 PM on April 4, 2022 [2 favorites]


Anecdata: I went to a gig at the Manchester Academy a month or so ago and 1) it was wonderful, everyone packed close together, some kids in front of us shared an actual cigarette (!) halfway through the set, it felt like I’d gone back in time by a decade; 2) while we didn’t get covid, everyone was standing next to each other and singing and cheering and I don’t remember seeing a single person in a mask, including bar staff or security. It was a total roll of the dice, I’m afraid, although everyone I went with was triple-vaxxed and most of us had recently had omicron. I don’t regret taking the risk, but my circumstances are different from yours.

There’s no way to manage your risk on this really - in England, young people at relatively low risk have taken the brunt of the pandemic and not had their sacrifice acknowledged in any way. Their elders, and the leaders that their elders insisted on, have now given up on any covid measures and appear to believe that the pandemic is over (it isn’t - if I was a betting man, I’d put money on another lockdown this year or next). People in their teens and twenties are catching up on life and in many ways it’s hard to blame them, but if you’re at high risk or stand a good chance of exposing someone at high risk, then you shouldn’t expect those preferences to be catered for and should act accordingly.
posted by chappell, ambrose at 11:31 PM on April 4, 2022


I recently got covid after sitting on a bus with schoolkids for an hour (they were unmasked, I was masked). I would imagine being in a gig with unmasked shouting/singing adults is only going to be more risky than that. We're currently having our second-highest peak of the whole pandemic (scroll down to "UK: new coronavirus cases per day").
posted by EndsOfInvention at 1:21 AM on April 5, 2022


Does anyone wear masks at gigs in the UK at the mo?

No-one wears masks anywhere. When I go to the shops/kid's school/swimming pool/work I'm lucky if I see a single other person wearing one.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 1:23 AM on April 5, 2022


I wouldn't say no one wears masks anymore; here in London, you're likely to see some mask-wearing on public transport (say maybe 30% of people on a crowded carriage) and no one looks at anyone funny.

I haven't been to any gigs in 2022 but I have been to other crowded indoor events and there was no masking.
posted by unicorn chaser at 3:03 AM on April 5, 2022


Response by poster: Thanks for the answers, sigh, so I know what I have to not do then...
posted by runincircles at 4:49 AM on April 5, 2022 [1 favorite]


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