There is an indoor music festival in the Seattle area called Wintergrass that I have gone to for the past several years, until last year when it was cancelled because of COVID. It has a lot of bluegrass music, but also a number of roots music artists. The venue is a large hotel and conference center in downtown Bellevue. Traditionally the hallways are filled with small groups jamming, while the formal performances are in the conference rooms. It is a delightful festival, music everywhere, very friendly attendees and performers. There are programs for children, there are sessions to attend to learn about writing music or playing the banjo or singing in harmony. If you join a jam you may well be playing music with the performer you just watched on stage. The first time I walked through the doors I said quietly, ‘I’m in Heaven’. The last time I attended was two weeks before the pandemic hit Washington in 2020 and after that, of course, everything changed.
So now I have to decide whether to go next week. The COVID rate in the Seattle area is down significantly, just as it is all over the country. The organizers are requiring everyone ages 12 and up who enters to show proof of a COVID vaccine, but not boosters, (the rule was established before there was a vaccine for younger children.) The venues will be at 50% capacity. They say they will be enforcing masks actually covering noses, although I know some will be slipping them down. And there will undoubtedly be those with fake vaccine cards—this is bluegrass, after all, which has a decidedly right wing audience.
I have been debating for months whether to go to the festival. It would involve a hotel stay and eating in restaurants, which I am not as worried about, but it does raise the risk. I am vaxxed and boosted, but I am 70 and have underlying conditions. I asked my daughters and one asked the exactly right questions: Would I be nervous the entire time I was there? Would I regret it if I don’t go? The answers to both is Yes. But I have been careful for two years, and I am getting very comfortable hibernating. Too comfortable. The COVID rate is at a low point right now, so if I am going to take a risk, now is a good time to do it. If I don’t go this time, will I ever go again? I don’t know. So I figure a DK poll will help me make up my mind.