Music Festival puts protocols in place for safety

The 2020 TT Music Festival is set to continue for five nights in September and October with measures in place to comply with covid19 protocols to prevent the spread of the disease, festival chairman Jessel Murray is assuring participants.

Murray said the open classes would be the first to be completed, both in north and south Trinidad, as Tobago had already completed their open classes in March. The open classes in San Fernando will take place at the Naparima Bowl between September 8 and 10, while the Port of Spain open classes will take place on September 18 and 19 at Queen’s Hall, St Ann’s. Competition will begin at 7 pm on each day. All classes will be judged by Dr Richard Tang Yuk. The festival got disrupted when the country went into lockdown in response to covid19 and there will be no audiences when it resumes.

Murray said changes had been made to the operation of the festival to conform to public health regulations.

“All of the choir classes have been removed, all of the ensemble classes that did not meet the requirements and any class which had more than 15 people, they would have to cut it down to 15 people or we would not be able to do it. There may seem to be a lot of classes but there aren’t a lot of people taking part in each class so that’s how we were able to determine only five more days were needed.”

He said physical distancing and wearing of masks will be maintained for people who are not performing at that moment.

“I’ve already said as chair that each facility must have an external tent that is not air-conditioned, and the social distancing will take place under the tent.

There will be one or two performers just off stage at a time, and one performer will be onstage. We will continue to have one-way traffic, which is always what we’ve had in any case, so there will be one person on-stage, one person backstage, and then the other performers will be socially distanced under tents outside.

Nobody will be allowed to occupy the dressing rooms in the way they have been in the past.”

Singer Misty-Ann Knights, who will be competing in the operatic category, said she was mainly concerned about the lack of an audience, as often her performance is enhanced by their reaction. She said she felt safe in terms of the protocols being implemented.

“I do feel safe that they’re taking that into consideration and keeping everything separate and stuff like that, I don’t mind that at all. At this point, I don’t think I’d want them to relax anything and they could even be more strict. For myself, being in front of everyone, especially the young competitors and knowing that I have to be more distant now for safety reason, I feel a little insecure, because it’s not the space I could call home, so getting accustomed to the new normal will take some getting accustomed to.”

UTT Academy of the Performing Arts vocal studio head Dr Leah Brown, whose students will be taking part in the competition, said while she wasn’t totally aware of the protocols being put in place, she was in favour of completing the competition.

“I assume it would be run in a safe way, even though I haven’t heard how yet, I’d make the assumption that it would be done with everything in place that is required. My students, those that are left to complete the competition are excited. We’re excited to finish it. We’re looking forward to looking at it online where we assume it will be available to everybody.”

Murray said there will be no championship round for any of the regions. Instead, the first-place winner of classes in the respective region will each receive commemorative plaques.