ROCKY MOUNT, VA. – We know the saying, “stay out of my bubble,” but now in Rocky Mount, it’s “stay out of my pod.”
The Harvester moved its shows outside due to the pandemic and they’re socially distancing in a unique way.
The music is back in downtown Rocky Mount. Hank and Janet Hanks made the trip in from Pulaski to see Darrell Scott on Thursday night.
“We’ve come to the Harvester several times indoors and thought perhaps they would find a way to do this, they’re first-class, so when we saw the circles we thought this could actually work,” Hank Hanks said.
There are 300 circles, seven and a half feet wide, with plenty of room for toe-tapping in the farmers market parking lot. Gary Jackson is the Harvester’s general manager. It’s a venue beloved for its intimacy, but now it’s the Harvester Outdoors.
“It’s our answer to what’s going on with this pandemic,” Jackson said. “We’re trying to be as socially responsible as humanly possible. We check people’s temperatures when they come in, we spray them with hand sanitizer when they first come in.”
They even sprayed down the equipment on the stage prior to the show. Thursday’s show was the third show set up like this and Jackson said masks are not optional.
“We’re serious, there’s been a few people that wouldn’t listen and we’ve said ‘go get your money back, you’re out of here,‘” Jackson said.
For the Hanks', their ears still work just fine even with the masks and they urge others to do the same.
“That would be my plea to anyone out there, let’s just play together and take care of each other. That’s all we got until they develop some treatments and vaccines, that’s what we’ve got is to take care of each other,” Hanks said.
The market is set up to seat 600 people for a show. Jackson said it’s important to keep the music going to help other businesses in the area.