Avett Brothers postponing New Year’s Eve concert in Greensboro due to COVID concerns
The Avett Brothers are postponing their annual New Year’s Eve show in North Carolina this year due to the band’s concern for COVID-19 and the highly contagious omicron variant posing a threat to audiences, venue staff and the band themselves.
The band was scheduled to perform at the Greensboro Coliseum on Friday.
Singer and founding member Seth Avett broke the news, which he called “unfortunate but necessary” in a video shared to Twitter on Wednesday evening.
“A lot of thought has gone into this and a lot of love has gone into this decision,” Avett said. “We don’t want to create an unsafe environment, and we don’t want to add any burden to our already overwhelmed health care workers here in North Carolina and beyond.”
Instead, the band is making last year’s virtual New Year’s Eve concert available for free. In 2020, as the pandemic canceled most plans, they put on a rollicking virtual concert filmed at the Belk Theater in Charlotte, with musicians like Willie Nelson and Brandi Carlile joining the festivities.
The concert will be available on the The Avett Brothers Facebook page or YouTube channel Friday at 9:30 p.m. EST.
In an online statement, the band said details will be released later on when the show will be rescheduled.
“We will see you in 2022,” Avett said in his video.
The Concord-based Avetts — Avett, brother Scott Avett, bassist Bob Crawford and cellist Joe Kwon — are known to travel North Carolina for their annual New Year’s Eve show. Friday would have been the fourth time the band played in Greensboro. They played Raleigh’s PNC Arena in 2017 and Charlotte’s Bojangles Coliseum in 2018.
The band has kept COVID-19 precautions at the forefront of their plans the past two years.
In October 2020, they put on an outdoor show at Charlotte Motor Speedway with attendees socially distanced in their respective cars.
This story was originally published December 29, 2021 at 5:16 PM with the headline "Avett Brothers postponing New Year’s Eve concert in Greensboro due to COVID concerns."
