After taking a one year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the North Atlantic Blues Festival is returning to Rockland next month and the two-day event will look largely the same as it has over its two-decade history. Well, except one thing.
There’s a new addition inspired by the pandemic: a pop-up vaccination clinic.
The pop-up clinic, which will offer COVID-19 vaccines to adults and qualifying children ages 12 and up, will be held during the festival’s club crawl on the evening of July 10. It’s one of the latest ways health officials are partnering with Maine businesses and organizations to get people vaccinated.
“The festival is somewhat back to normal this year, outside of the COVID-19 station for shots. Sometimes you have to think outside of the box a little bit,” North Atlantic Blues Festival organizer Paul Benjamin said. “It’s giving people who haven’t had a chance to get vaccinated a chance to get vaccinated, which we feel is very important.”
The 28th North Atlantic Blues Festival will take place in Rockland’s Harbor Park July 10 and 11. The festival typically draws about 5,000 to 6,000 attendees, with the free club crawl ― which shuts down U.S. Route 1 for a night ― bringing an additional 4,000 to 5,000 people to the city.
North Atlantic Blues Festival organizers made the decision late this winter to begin planning for the July 2021 festival. Pandemic restrictions still hadn’t eased at that point and Benjamin said if the social distancing requirement hadn’t been lifted by summer, the festival most likely would have been cancelled.
But with capacity limits and distancing restrictions for outdoor venues being lifted in Maine on May 24, festival organizers had a greenlight to move forward as planned.
“We kind of rolled the dice a little bit. We were very hopeful and kind of reading the tea leaves that the festival would be able to take place. So we’re pleased that everything has fallen into place for the festival,” Benjamin said.
Originally organizers contemplated having the pop-up clinic on the festival grounds. However, since the festival attracts an older crowd, Benjamin estimated that a majority of paying attendees have most likely already been vaccinated.
The club crawl seemed like a better opportunity to get a larger number of people vaccinated, since it is free to the public. During the club crawl, about five Maine-based blues bands perform at various locations along Main Street while the closed-down street fills with people of all ages dancing and meandering along.
“It brings a lot of people downtown that night,” Benjamin said. “It kind of turns Rockland into a little New Orleans or Beale Street in Memphis or something for the night.”
The vaccination clinic will be held in a public park at the corner of Main Street and Park Street from 6:30 p.m. to 10 p.m.
The clinic is being facilitated by a mix of state and local entities, including Maine Center for Disease Control’s Public Health Nursing Program staff, which will be administering the shots. The city of Rockland is providing the public space for the pop-up clinic, the North Atlantic Blues Festival is advertising for the clinic and the Knox County Emergency Management Agency will be providing logistical support.
“This clinic exemplifies the kind of collaboration between private entities with municipal, local, and state governments that has made Maine one of the national leaders in COVID-19 vaccination rates,” Maine CDC spokesperson Robert Long said.
Anyone who gets a shot at the clinic will receive a copy of Benjamin’s book “Heart of Blues: 25 Years of the North Atlantic Blues Festival,” as well as a DVD of performances and interviews from past festivals.
Since an aspect of the club crawl includes attendees having the option of visiting local bars to see bands perform as well, the public health nurses administering the vaccines “will make professional decisions to vaccinate [or] not vaccinate anyone, including those who may be impaired,” Long said.
“As to imbibing after the vaccination, we recommend that people behave responsibly. There is no research indicating that drinking alcohol can affect the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines,” Long said.
So far, ticket sales for the 2021 festival have outpaced the 2019 festival, which Benjamin feels is an indication that people are ready for music festivals to return.
“Music heals the soul and we just felt [the festival] was very much needed,” Benjamin said. “I think people are anxious to get back out, hear live music and just feel good.”