BY RACHEL BRUERVILLE, OPINIONS EDITOR
At the end of October 2021, Premier Steven Marshall announced a much-anticipated COVID “roadmap” for South Australia – in our case, this is called the COVID-Ready plan.
One of the most significant aspects of this plan was the removal of border restrictions for double-vaccinated incoming travellers from New South Wales, Victoria, and the ACT, on 23 November.
I remember watching that press conference in the office where I hold a communications role at a South Australian live music venue. I specifically remember that SA Premier Steven Marshall used the following words: We want to provide certainty to the people of South Australia.
All I could do was laugh.
“Provide certainty”? Are you serious?!
This may be an admirable assertion to make to the voting public, but seriously? Clearly no one can claim to provide certainty in what is perhaps the most uncertain time in living memory.
And now, here we are again, grappling with the newly spreading Omicron – another COVID “variant of concern”. Grappling with the way these uncertain times are continuing to impact the lives of those in our music industry.
We as the ensemble singing community had no idea where we would stand
Throughout the early stages of the pandemic, group singing had been singled out by the nation’s health authorities as a risky activity.
As a professional ensemble singer, 2021 has been even more of a nightmare. When our premier first mentioned there were going to be restrictions on singing, we as the ensemble singing community had no idea where we would stand.
We heard from the SA premier that “we are not going to put restrictions in place for the performers themselves”. It was common sense to us that choirs are also performers. But these finer details appeared to be unclear to those who were making the rules that were going to devastate our community – even though the Adelaide Choral Network was working directly with SA Health to create COVID-safe guidelines for choirs.
Of course, there were no specific restrictions on group chanting at a sporting event; no restrictions on how much saliva could be flying around the Adelaide Oval grandstands.
Such “double standards”, which “discriminate against cultural events” in favour of sports, are an ongoing source of frustration to performers and arts workers who must sacrifice their work for “unfair” regulations.
Twenty-five thousand people cheering together at a sporting event? Certainly. But controlled, distanced, professional singers in well-ventilated areas, whether in rehearsal or performance? No, no, no.
I’m trying to manage a seemingly never-ending tide of overwhelm
As a freelance musician, who also has regular office hours each week, I am very used to juggling many things at once. However, I have never felt as utterly depleted from project to project as I have in the past six months.
I’m trying to manage a seemingly never-ending tide of overwhelm, which I think many freelance artists are used to. But the pandemic brain fatigue is becoming too much.
Surely, surely, we are almost there. We’re almost out, right? Vaccination rates are continuing to climb, and many arts organisations are confidently releasing their 2022 seasons.
But isn’t this similar to what many of us thought at the end of 2020?
Australian writer Clementine Ford shared a post on Facebook this 1 December, which summarises my thoughts perfectly:
… We are all just completely burnt out. We’ve spent almost two years in a state of apprehension, our muscles grown permanently tense from steeling themselves against bad news one too many times. And now it’s December, and the Gregorian calendar has conditioned us to believe we have only 31 more days to get the year’s affairs in order before the whole sorry mess of existing begins again.
“January!” we’ll say. “2022! Can you believe it?!”
– Clementine Ford
We are facing the new year, and I don’t quite know how long we can keep going.
But no matter what happens, we have to keep going.
What does this story mean to you?
If you like, you can say thanks to Rachel for sharing her COVID story. No amount too much or little.
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