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‘It’s our business to book events’; El Paso entertainment venues book calendars and plan for pandemic-related changes

EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- A year into the pandemic, El Paso is getting closer to a return to normal. Large entertainment events are back on the calendar at local venues. Those events, however, will likely not look like they used to.

For Borderland resident Samantha D’Amico, losing concerts and music festivals during the pandemic has been tough.

"Concerts or music festivals have always been a big part of my life," she said. "It's how I made a lot of my lifelong friends and it also gave me the opportunity to travel. It's just been one of my favorite parts of the last couple of years."

She wasn't ready for the pandemic to close the curtain on these shows so suddenly.

"I had a lot of plans in 2020," D'Amico said. "A lot of things that I was planning on doing were taken away."

D'Amico might not have to wait much longer to get back to the concert floor.

El Paso venues are now trying to tackle what once seemed impossible: hosting large groups during the pandemic.

"It's our business to book events," said Jorge Vazquez, the Executive Director of Special Events at the University of Texas at El Paso. "We have to do our jobs, but we're very sensitive right of the situation of what's going on and we will not reopen until it's safe."

UTEP announced recently reggaetĂ³n artist Maluma is set to perform at the Don Haskins Center in September. The show is currently moving forward without capacity limits, but Vasquez said that could always change.

There will be some differences fans will notice.

"We no longer can expect to go to the building right before the concert starts," Vasquez said. "We have to go through not only our usual security protocol but also now we have to do temperature checks."

The Chief of Infectious Diseases at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso said on-site screening and testing could be key to hosting large events safely.

"It really has to do with a plan of action," Dr. Armando Meza said.

The Plaza Theatre is also planning upcoming events. Some shows are slated for May. However, the general manager of Destination El Paso says those could be postponed.

"We have waited so long to be able to come back to live entertainment," Bryan Crowe said. "We don't want to be in a position where we're negatively contributing to the spread of COVID-19 in our community."

Crowe said it can sometimes be more profitable to postpone a show rather than continue with capacity limits.

He said he expects large indoor events to return in the fall or in 2022.

"What I can tell you is that when we do come back, El Pasoans are going to have so much entertainment to choose from because we have over a year and a half worth of touring artists," Crowe said.

It is good news for fans like D'Amico.

"There was such a long time where there was no real look for that light at the end of the tunnel," she said. "Knowing that there are things being planned again, it makes me really hopeful."

Article Topic Follows: News

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Madeline Ottilie

Madeline Ottilie is a reporter on Good Morning El Paso and co-anchors ABC-7 at noon.

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