As you have probably seen, Mile of Music released a preliminary announcement stating that they are coming back this year. An official announcement will come at the end of the month with more details.
I thought it would be interesting to see where they started in their planning so we can see how things end up in August. On 05/12/2021 the Board of Health took up the noise variance request by the Mile of Music organizers.
The very next day after the Board heard about the Mile of Music safety plan and approved the noise variance, the CDC released their updated Interim Public Health Recommendations for Fully Vaccinated People to state “Risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection is minimal for fully vaccinated people. The risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission from fully vaccinated people to unvaccinated people is also reduced. Therefore, fully vaccinated people can resume activities without wearing a mask or physically distancing, except where required by federal, state, local, tribal, or territorial laws, rules, and regulations, including local business and workplace guidance”, so it’s not clear now that any of the mitigation strategies they discussed during the Board of Health meeting will be necessary.
Mayor Woodford spoke highly of the event organizers and appreciated the thoughtfulness with which they had approached their planning. He said that they had had numerous conversations with city leadership including the Health Department and the Mayor’s office as they sought to hold the event in a way that looked out for the health and safety of the community.
Health Officer Eggebrecht confirmed that they had been meeting with Mile of Music organizers for many months and reviewing burden rates and trajectories with them. When the vaccine became available they were delighted that there might be an opportunity to hold the event. He said Dave Willems had been the person the Health Department talked through issues with and who then relayed to the venues that Mile of Music had to be a collaborative partner with mitigation strategies.
Dave said the whole community had been working together to try to have music and other events bounce back. He stated that one of our mantras had been “Let’s show the state and the country that Appleton can do this effectively and safely at the same time.”
He thought they were still in a pretty big phase here of uncertainty. The permit request and noise variance request had to be put in ahead of time but there had not been a final decision made yet even on the event itself. They were trying to be as safe as possible by following the data. He said they hoped to put a teaser out on that Friday which would be the one year anniversary of when they cancelled the 2020 Mile of Music. They planned by the end of May to make an official statement.
He mentioned that they had been in touch with a lot of the other events that are happening within the region such as EAA.
He said they were working with the individual Mile of Music venues on what they were calling modified capacities. There are already situations where, for example, a small venue has a capacity of 107 and a large venue only has a capacity of 210 and they don’t seem to really match up. He said they were trying to go into each venue and talk to the owners about what a comfortable number would be that wasn’t at their capacity. They didn’t want to go with a blanket limit of 75% of total capacity because there were some venues where even that would be more people than they wanted in there during a comeback from a pandemic.
They had made no determination on face coverings and were going to let the continuing evolution of those guidelines run their course. Unlike some other events that are all outside, they have 30 venues that will be inside and are about 50/50 in terms of indoor and outdoor music. They have planned for more outside music this year and have gotten creative with little parking lots and spaces that are adjacent to businesses. Rain, however, is a potential problem. They have a game plan for shelter if it rains and letting people know through their app and other communications where they should go if they need shelter. Option will include the Expo Center. There won’t be music there but it will be an option to get out of the rain. He said that in the past they’ve been able to move shows indoors when it rains, but they won’t be doing that this year. He said they’ve worked with the venues to make sure they don’t allow a crush of people to come into their venues and put them over their modified capacity limits. He acknowledged that, officially, they could tell people to head for the parking ramps to get out of the rain, but they knew many would try to crowd into indoor music venues. In 2019 they only had an hour and a half of rain over the entire weekend, so they were going to keep their fingers crossed that this year would go well too.
They were also looking at things such as having porta potties spaced out and not clustered and having more handwashing stations. He said they submitted their event plan with mitigation to the city, but it was preliminary and they anticipated that the situation would be fluid right up until August 1st in terms of what they were doing. They hoped to start out with the plan for modified capacities and that it may evolve by the time the event was held.
Mayor Woodford thanked the organizers and pointed out that this was event organizers working with business owners and artists to come up with a plan. Restrictions and mitigation efforts were not the result of imposition by the local government. “We’re working together, and I’m grateful for the partnership.”
Dr. Vogel wondered if the city could somehow work with Mile of Music “because this is a motivation to get vaccinated, right? There’s gotta be a slogan in that.”
Dave said that one of their messages will be that the more vaccinated and safe the community can be, the more open Mile of Music will be able to be. He said it takes a village to raise a music festival. The artists that perform are expecting the event to be as safe as possible both for them and their fans.
He mentioned that the challenge is that they are a community supported festival. They were looking at the financial piece right now and trying to figure out, now that they know they’re going to have a festival, what can they do in terms of fundraising between now and then.
The other issue was that they have been a free festival and will be again this year. That makes it difficult to manage how many people come Downtown. He pointed to the ice sculpture event where so many more people came Downtown than were expected. That part is the wildcard for them and the part they’re continuing to work through because they don’t have strong control over the number of people who attend. They have some options for how we could do that, but as things continue to open up he thought there would be more resistance to some of those things. He reiterated that they were continuing to work with the city as well as some of the venues to make Mile of Music happen safely.
The noise variance was approved unanimously.
View full meeting details here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=846183&GUID=63CE6856-DBCC-4C8D-B601-B991A7714737&Options=info|&Search=
Be the first to reply