The Year In Touring: Artists And Their Teams Step Up To Challenge Of Rescheduling Rollercoaster

As the vaccine distribution efforts provided promise of hope for a return to some sort of normalcy and venues finally got the go-ahead to reopen their doors, agents continued to contend with more rerouting and relaunching tours, while navigating the potential congestion of so many artists eager to hit the road and only so many dates available on the calendar.   

“When we first took a look at what we wanted to do – we just didn’t know when anything was going to come back,” UTA’s Ken Fermaglich, agent for Guns N’ Roses, said June 22 during a panel at Pollstar Live! in regard to routing the band’s “We’re F’N’ Back” run of stadium and arena dates that was ultimately booked July 31 through Oct. 3. After the pandemic postponed the tour a year, Fermaglich explained that the band pushed a handful of gigs that were scheduled at the beginning of the run to the end and then added a handful of shows. 

“It’s been a complete maze, would be the word,” Fermaglich adds. “Of course, nobody’s had to deal with this before and there’s no road map, you’re playing guessing games about a whole lot of different aspects of what goes into mass gatherings – that’s really the name of the game.”

Some artists and their teams chose to move their tours to ‘22 rather than fussing with the uncertainty of making a return to the stage viable in 2021, with so much still up in the air with analyzing when states and borders would be open for business, along with the task of taking on COVID protocols and the threat of variants.   

“The idea was trying to guess ahead to what would be open that you could deal with 100%” Howard Rose, Sir Elton’s longtime agent, shared during the Pollstar Live! Panel when discussing rescheduling the third year of the “Farewell Yellow Brick Road” tour, which had already been sold out. 

“It worked out that January of ‘22 was the logical place to start based on his worldwide touring. So we set those dates, gosh, it has to be almost a year ago and had our fingers crossed that the pandemic would be over and the venues would be open at 100%, because if they weren’t 100% we wouldn’t be able to play them.”

By encouraging audience members to get their vaccines and wear masks while the artists themselves often traveled in bubbles and were constantly tested for COVID, artists and their teams often went above and beyond this year in adhering to strict COVID protocols to keep their fans and crew safe – and ensure that tours could stay on the road. 

With rising COVID cases across the country, Phoebe Bridgers announced in August that “in the interest of safety” she was moving all previously scheduled indoor shows on her fall “Reunion Tour” to outdoor venues. The indie rocker also updated the tour’s health and safety requirements, with entry to concerts requiring proof of vaccination except in states that ban such requirements. 

Foo Fighters had the honor of headlining Madison Square Garden June 20 – marking the venue’s first show since the March 2020 shutdown – but less than a month later the band was forced to postpone the reopening of Inglewood’s Forum just days before the concert due to a team member’s positive test for COVID-19. 

Fortunately, the rescheduling rollercoaster of 2021, otherwise known as the new normal, saw most artists who were affected by COVID quickly recovering from breakthrough infections and just postponing a few dates rather than a whole tour. In early August Fall Out Boy had to miss the Boston and New York stops on the “Hella Mega Tour,” which also featured Green Day and Weezer, after a member of the team tested positive for COVID-19, with Green Day and Weezer carrying on with the dates. The tour ultimately finished strong and ranked No. 3 on the Top 100 Tours Worldwide Tours chart by grossing $67.3 million and selling 659,062 tickets.