Kansas City concert scene ‘like the valley of death’ amid COVID-19. Are there refunds?
For people in the concert business, this is the worst of times. The COVID-19 pandemic has wiped out all their spring events and has put their summer season on life support.
“We’re trying to be big boys and tie our shoes,” said Chris Fritz, president of Providence Medical Center Amphitheater, “but it feels like the valley of death.”
He doesn’t have to tell that to area music fans.
They have already lost major shows by Cher, Elton John, Alicia Keys, Zac Brown Band, Kesha, Rage Against the Machine, DaBaby, Niall Horan and many more (although Cher and Rage Against the Machine have been rescheduled for later dates at the Sprint Center).
Moreover, the pandemic has canceled stadium extravaganzas featuring Kenny Chesney (Arrowhead) and Def Leppard and Mötley Crüe (Kauffman).
Part of the reason is Kansas City and surrounding counties banned large gatherings. But as local restrictions ease, the acts are still canceling or postponing national tours.
Almost as bad, while so many concerts bite the dust, fans likely get their hopes up when they see a few dates still dotting the summer schedule — with tickets being sold.
But think of those as musical mirages.
Unfortunately for fans, some artists and promoters wait as long as possible to pull the postponement plug. Or they delay making the facts public.
The result is that some concerts appear on websites and continue to sell tickets, even though there is little or no chance they will be held. In the meantime, ticket holders are unable to apply for refunds until the official announcements are made.
As of June 9, five concerts remained listed on the Providence Amphitheater website for 2020, and you could buy tickets for them all, starting with For King & Country on July 2. Problem is, For King & Country’s website says the concert has been postponed, even though right next to that notice is a link to buy tickets to the show.
Chances are good Providence’s other still-listed July concerts, including ZZ Top and Willie Nelson on July 29, will also be postponed or canceled. Probably the August dates, too.
“I’m not saying we’re 100% dead for this year, but last week was a nightmare,” Fritz said June 1. “We had four postponements and two cancellations.”
A similar scenario has played out at Starlight Theatre, which continues to sell tickets to a few concerts that Starlight president and CEO Rich Baker expects will eventually be canceled or postponed.
Other venues list an outlier or two, shows that have continued to sell tickets while awaiting the guillotine blade to fall. The Truman website included a June 27 performance by Samantha Fish until June 8, when that concert was marked as postponed. Sheryl Crow’s June 28 show at CrossroadsKC was selling tickets until June 9.
Among the likely future victims are Jamey Johnson (July 24) at CrossroadKC and Wilco (Aug. 13) at Arvest Bank Theatre at The Midland.
Sammy Jo Gibson, a marketing manager for AEG who handles events at the Midland, said shows are listed on venue and ticket websites until word comes from the artists that they have been postponed or canceled.
“We’re just reassessing shows as we get closer to the dates,” she said. “It is constantly changing. They’re all gone through July. Now we’re looking at August.”
The Sprint Center lost all concerts originally scheduled through August, although Dan + Shay — which was postponed from April 9 to Aug. 14 — is hanging on. Cable Dahmer Arena (formerly the Silverstein Eye Centers Arena), the Madrid, the Uptown, the Granada and VooDoo list no music shows until at least mid-August.
There are some breaks in the music scene’s clouds, however.
Some area night spots, including the Roxy, the Ambassador Hotel and establishments at the Power & Light District, have reopened with live shows for limited-capacity audiences.
Among the area’s small-to-medium-sized concert venues, RecordBar plans the earliest return with Noah Davis & Heavy Electric, Nicole Springer Band and Mad Kings tentatively slated for July 25,
Steve Tulipana, co-owner and co-founder of RecordBar, is making significant accommodations to assure the public’s health.
“We will be limiting capacity and making it table-seated for the July event so that we can attempt to distance people,” he said. “Once we get into standing rock show territory, I am not sure how it will go yet. We plan to install touchless sinks in the bathrooms and kick-open door closures to limit touching of surfaces.”
For Knuckleheads, all that is old hat.
The venerable honky-tonk stands out as unique among local venues. With four stages and a total capacity of 1,200, Knuckleheads has been putting on live shows since May 15 when it limited attendance to 10% and sold all 120 tickets to hear Outlaw Jim and the Whiskey Benders.
Since then, Kansas City has loosened its restrictions to allow 50% capacity.
Club owner Frank Hicks said things have gone smoothly.
“The first night we opened, we were being watched closely in many different ways. One, to see how it would go, and, two, to see if we were doing it correctly,” he said. “The other clubs (were) watching to see if they should open or stay closed. So I felt a little pressure as a guinea pig, if you will.”
Hicks said Knuckleheads set tables 10 feet apart and chairs 6 feet apart, installed plastic shields and sanitizing stations and required employees to wear masks.
Unlike almost all other local venues, Knuckleheads has the space to make all that work
“The multiple stages are now a godsend,” Hicks said. “They help a lot.”
Still, Hicks has had to deal with the same issue as everybody else – having little control over the fate of some concerts.
“Part of the problem is if some of the venues cancel an artist, then it causes a domino effect, and the artist loses all his or her gigs,” he said. “It’s very frustrating right now because so many bands are having to reschedule, and keeping things updated is very time consuming.”
Ah, but there’s always next year, everyone hopes.
Even as most officials are planning for a slate of shows in the fall, postponements are causing next year’s schedules to fill as many acts have simply delayed their tours a year. Fritz says Providence Amphitheater already has “13 to 14” shows lined up for 2021.
“It’s going to be over the top,” he said. “We know it’s going to be big.”
What ticket holders should do
Ticket buyers need to be aware of the difference between a cancellation and a postponement.
For cancellations, refunds are sent automatically to buyers through Ticketmaster, AXS and most other outlets. For postponements, buyers usually are notified and have 30 days to request a refund. Tickets typically will be honored on the new date, but sometimes those aren’t set for weeks after the postponements are announced, leaving customers in limbo. Some sellers also offer credits in place of or in addition to refunds.
If you purchased a ticket at the box office, you must return there for a refund. And if you used the secondary or resale market at a site such as StubHub, good luck.
Until the pandemic, StubHub guaranteed a 120% credit or a refund of the original order amount in case of a cancellation. With the onslaught of cancellations, the policy became coupons only — for the value of the original order. A class-action lawsuit quickly followed, and as of June 1, StubHub says it will “add a coupon worth 120% of your original order to your StubHub account.”
This story was originally published June 11, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
