I got a notification today that a concert I had booked for September 2021 had been moved (for a second time) to April 2022. This both perplexed and depressed me in equal measures.
It is just about a year since the UK entered the first lockdown. At that point we really didn’t know what to expect or how long it was going to last, although I am pretty certain I didn’t think I’d still be locked down 12 months later, albeit with a coupe of breaks.
To put this in some sort of perspective during lockdown #1 our granddaughter (and her parents) came to live with us which turned out to be a wonderful period for us. At that point you could put her down, walk away, and come back later safe in the knowledge that she’d still be in the same spot when you returned. Now, 12 months later, I’m not allowed to sit down without her dragging me up and off to do whatever she wants me to do. She’s always on the go and there is no chance of her being in the same spot for any more than a nanosecond!
Our granddaughter has changed so much in the last 12 months while everything else has remained exactly the same.
Back to the concert. This was to have been on a Saturday night out squeezed between a trip to the Chelsea flower show (postponed from May) on the Friday and a flight to our Boston holiday (postponed a year) on the Sunday. Someone, the promotor or the venue I assume, has decided that having a number of people together in the same space seated closely together isn’t going to be possible even by September. Given that the plan to end lockdown is due to be announced on Monday I find this an odd decision. In my head I thought that those that wanted the vaccination would have received it by the end of September and so things could start to return but this implies not.
It’s not the only concert that has been moved from 2021 to 2022 either. Our trip to see 10cc at the Hexagon has been moved back a year meaning that it will be two whole years from when it was originally planned to when it actually takes place, assume it does. I’m now beginning to wonder if they’ll be wheeling Graham Gouldman out directly from his care home at this rate!
This is not a plea for an early end ot the lockdown, I’m not one of the tinhat brigade. It’s more that my personal expectations were that things might be edging back to normality by September and this cancellation has made me stop and think. And if it is tough for me it must be devistating to those who rely on these sorts of events taking place.