By Elisha Fieldstadt
An
Arkansas venue planning to hold a country music concert with more than
200 people on Friday will be served a cease-and-desist letter, the
state's governor said Tuesday.
"You can’t
just arbitrarily determine when the restrictions are lifted. That is
something that is done based on a public health requirement," Gov. Asa
Hutchinson said during a news conference regarding an "intimate solo acoustic performance with Travis McCready" scheduled for May 15 at the Temple Live event space.
The Arkansas Department of Health issued a directive last week that said that starting on May 18, indoor venues could hold events with 50 people or fewer,
and must adhere to other guidelines like arranging seating 6 feet
apart. Venues that wanted to hold events with more than 50 people must
be operating at less than 34 percent capacity and also submit a plan to
the department.
"Clearly, it is three days
before we determined it was an appropriate time to open up to a limited
capacity in some of those informal venues, and even if you’re going to
have 250 people at a venue, you still have to have a specific plan that
would be approved by the Department of Health. None of that was done in
this case," Hutchinson said of the McCready show.
The Department of Health will be sending the venue a cease-and-desist letter, Hutchinson said. On Wednesday morning, tickets for the show were still on sale.
A message seeking comment from Temple Live, which is in Fort Smith on the border of Oklahoma, went unanswered Wednesday.
Mike Brown, a venue spokesperson, told NBC affiliate KNWA last month
that as far as he knows, the show is the first announced since
coronavirus shutdowns began in March. He said the event would be in line
with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines.
(Travis McCready: "Ride With Me" on The World-Famous "Viva! NashVegas® Radio Show" 4:25 min)
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