Concert season is back in full swing as the world is beginning to lift the COVID-19 restrictions, that once shut us all inside. With concert season back during such a delicate time, the attendees and outside world cannot help but wonder if these concerts will do more harm than good. Many fear that concerts will cause Covid cases to rise once more. This is why some artists and venues have informed concert goers that masks and a negative COVID-19 test will be required to attend.  

However, this has upset some states and concert goers. This past month, on Feb. 22, I attended a concert for pop-punk band, Mayday Parade at the El Rey Theater in Los Angeles. It was my first of several concerts for the year and was very memorable. The venue was all general admission, so I was able to slither my way to front row. Being back in a concert environment was amazing. I found myself in a mosh pit and got kicked in the head by a crowd surfer, I felt alive for the first time since this pandemic hit. However, looking around, I noticed that my fellow concert-goers were not all wearing their masks right. The vast majority weren’t even wearing masks at all. This caused me to feel a bit wary. These masks, although inconvenient at times, have become a security blanket for some of us that we are not all ready to take off.  

With the masks situation becoming much more relaxed as certain states lift their mandates, not all artists feel the same. World pop star, Harry Styles, mandated that all attendees of his concerts were to wear masks or get a negative Covid-19 test result 48 hours before the concert happened in order to attend his “Love On Tour” tour. However, when Styles got to Florida for one of his several tour stops, the state was not happy with him. The Orlando Weekly wrote,  “Styles’ concert was an event that was singled out individually for potential violations, in addition to the probe into other events at the Amway Center.” The state of Florida is not the fondest of masks and has been filing lawsuits to people that have been forcing the masks onto the general public. Styles was one of those individuals that received a lawsuit from the state of Florida. All he wanted was to bring concerts back in a safe way that could guarantee everyone’s safety. 

It has become very apparent in our society that not everyone feels the same about the masks. Some hate them while others cannot imagine a time before them. But when it comes to concerts, I believe that we should be wearing them, at least during these times. Being in that pit on that Tuesday night, with hundreds of people pressed up against me, I felt rather safe despite it all. Not everyone will agree with me, but I do not see any harm in masking up before concerts. If wearing a mask and being vaccinated helps me attend all six of my concerts that I have this year, it is just what I will do. 

Wearing a mask to ensure both my safety and the fans and the artists, it is a small price I can manage to pay. So yes, I will be attending my next two concerts on March 12 and March 13 of this month, with my mask over my nose. And I still will manage to have the time of my life.