Lollapalooza Cofounder: Concerts Likely Done Until 2022

Concerts probably will not return for another two years, Lollapalooza cofounder Marc Geiger said in an interview.

“The whole thing is a s–t show,” Geiger said on The Bob Lefsetz Podcast. “Whether it’s testing or the government, it’s too infinite of a well to go down. But in my humble opinion, it’s going to be 2022. It’s going to take that long before what I call the ‘germaphobia economy’ is slowly killed off and replaced by the ‘claustrophobia economy,’ which is where everybody wants to go out and go out to dinner and have their lives, go to festivals and shows.

“My instinct is that’s going to take a while because super-spreader events — sports, shows, festivals, classrooms — ain’t going to do too well while the virus is this present,” he added. “So my instinct is the world has a very long, forced timeout.”

Geiger cofounded Lollapalooza, an annual music festival in Chicago, in 1990. He made his prediction on Thursday, the same day the United States hit a new one-day record for the spread of coronavirus, with 77,217 new infections. The number was announced on Friday.

He added that event organizers face “infinite liability” stemming from the risk of coronavirus spreading at events, and said he wouldn’t be surprised if things get much worse in the year ahead. “The next six months may be more painful than the last six months, and maybe the next six months after that are even more so.”

Listen above via The Bob Lefsetz Podcast.