Integrity Score 2097
No Records Found
No Records Found
No Records Found
More than a year since the Covid-19 pandemic arrived, New Orleans’ Mardi Gras carnival has been restricted, the mayor closing bars even on Fat Tuesday, the carnival’s biggest day. Restaurants remain open however and residents of the city of high spirits have refused to give in to gloom, replacing the traditional parade with house floats—blocks of residential areas decorated by theme, with home owners ready to fling party favors and trinkets at the tourists who pass by.
The house floats idea has done much to help local artists and carnival suppliers who have been hit by the cancellation of the carnival. But though this is a brave attempt to retain the spirit of Mardi Gras, the fact remains that the Covid-19 pandemic has changed the expression of culture around the world in ways nobody could once imagine.
Museums, art galleries, theatres and arenas, for instance, could not be visited. Live performances and events were banned. All over the world, cultural events usually taken for granted by citizens and tourists were cancelled. The future does not seem brighter. As new strains of the coronavirus develop and the numbers of people affected rise and fall and rise again, the future seems sadly free of big cultural events.
Though digitization has helped the creatively inclined entertain millions of people in quarantine, economies around the world have been immensely affected by the pandemic. And even a superficial glance at cultural histories shows that though creative activities are often highly appreciated, decision-makers see them as ‘non-essential’.
Even when the pandemic ends, cultural activities that require group efforts and huge audiences may not re-emerge soon. It will take time for drooping economies to return to pre-pandemic levels, which means people will have lower purchasing power for years, leading to a drop in demand for creative, imaginative, joyful, but non-essential, cultural events.
See also:
The value of a creative culture
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590291120300863
Do politicians view museums essential or expendable?
https://www.athensinsider.com/culture-at-the-time-of-a-pandemic/
The future of entertainment and culture
https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/08/15/covid-19-pandemic-culture-sports-entertainment/
How resilient is culture?
http://www.worldcitiescultureforum.com/news/the-impact-of-the-covid-19-pandemic-on-culture-in-world-cities
How the pandemic will change culture
https://wdet.org/posts/2020/04/08/89463-when-this-pandemic-ends-culture-will-never-be-the-same/