Live Nation recommending proof of vax, negative COVID test results for all tours

Live Nation on Friday issued a “best practices” recommendations policy for COVID safety protocols for all of its U.S. concert tours and venues.

The concert promoter behemoth is recommending to each touring artist’s camp that concertgoers provide proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test to gain entry to concert venues. However, it will be up to each individual tour to implement the recommended safety measures or not.

The best practices policy, signed by Live Nation CEO Michael Rupino, read in part: “Our teams have worked together to put new processes in place so that artists doing shows with Live Nation in the U.S. can require all attendees and staff to be fully vaccinated or show a negative test result for entry, where permitted by law. We believe this is a great model, and we have already implemented this successfully at many major shows including Lollapalooza. ... we hope these measures encourage even more people to get vaccinated.”

Lollapalooza, which ended on Sunday, came under fire from health officials and the general public alike for taking place amid the surge of the delta variant, the festival being referred to as a possible super-spreader event despite requiring all attendees to show proof of vaccination or negative COVID tests.

Live Nation’s president and chief financial officer Joe Berchtold, on Tuesday told company shareholders that Lollapalooza was “very successfully done,” with regards to COVID safety protocols.

“I think what we’re seeing is a shift to increasing requirements for entry of either tested or fully vaccinated. We had that at Lollapalooza over the last weekend very successfully done. Over 90% of the people were fully vaccinated, which I think was a great signal in terms of people’s commitment and support of being vaccinated in order to go to these shows,” he said.

In addition, effective Oct. 4, all Live Nation employees in the U.S. must be vaccinated to enter any Live Nation venues or offices.