Austin community enjoys socially-distanced live music on Easter Sunday
AUSTIN, Texas - In front of a slowly changing downtown background, a return to an Austin original on Sunday: live music.
"A lot of event staff and artists out there have just been dying for that energy and interaction with," said Cory Baker, CEO of The Long Center. "It’s wonderful being back together and being able to bring people together on the front lawn of Austin."
Austinites Corrine Callahan and Susan Anderson were excited about the opportunity.
"It’s unbelievably great, liberating, and it feels great to be outside and around people but safe," they said.
And for musician Ray Prim, it was nice to get back to doing shows.
"We’ve had to make music offline, people couldn’t come over, we had to buy equipment, had to buy a camera so we could do online shows," said Prim. "As far as interacting with crowds, it sucked."
DOWNLOAD THE FOX 7 AUSTIN NEWS APP
The Long Center and Luck Reunion have been partnering to hold the Long Live Music concert series, hoping to bring support to struggling music industry workers in more ways than one.
Attendees were asked to donate food or money to Musically Fed, a nonprofit organization working nationwide to support unemployed music industry workers.
"Musicians can pivot, but if you’re a tour manager or road crew or lighting director, you need to have a venue to light or a place to do sound," said Matt Bizer, CEO and co-founder of Luck Reunion. "We wanted to take care of these crews more than anyone else because as we get back we’re going to need them."
The goal is to continue to provide concert-goers with live entertainment, along with helping artists get back on their feet.
SIGN UP FOR FOX 7 AUSTIN EMAIL ALERTS
"I hope everybody keeps in mind that as we start to return our artists and musicians in Austin are going to need a lot of love and support," said Baker.
Sunday’s show was the final run of The Long Center’s spring concert series, but they plan to hold a weekly concert series through the summer.