Dirt Monkey Plays To A Packed Crowd In Orlando At One Of The First Shows Post-Lockdown

While most of the nation begins slowly opening up clubs at reduced capacity, many individual states are going opening up at their own pace, and some are even throwing full-on shows already. GILT Nightclub in Orlando, FL just had a show last night with Dirt Monkey headlining.

GILT had strict safety procedures in place for both employees and guests, with mandatory temperature checks in place, masks mandatory for staff and “strongly encouraged” for guests. Sanitizing stations were placed all around the club, including the front door. Staff were required to wash hands at least 6 times per hour, as well. The club itself was also only at half capacity, holding less than 700 of the normally 1,500 capacity room.

When we asked Dirt Monkey if he was still worried about COVID-19 when he was approached about the show, he said, “I had some concerns for sure, especially with it being the first show back, but my family and I eat really healthy and work hard to keep our immune systems on point, also I made sure not to have any direct contact with anyone in the crowd. Dosed up hard on vitamin D and zinc the day before and during, as well.”

From the video below, it did not seem that many guests were wearing masks, at least not at the time the video was taken. It’s possible they could have been otherwise.

“It felt unreal,” Dirt Monkey said. “We all needed this. Not only was there a vibe of just pure happiness, all the staff was beyond stoked to have their jobs back again. That’s who got hit the hardest during the pandemic – clubs and their employees. I’m just happy that they (and us artists) can have the light at the end of the tunnel now with all this.”

Florida showed a large spike in new cases on June 4, 10 days after large Memorial Day celebrations. However, new cases have continued to decline since then.

While the risk for COVID-19 is far from over, proper precautions can help maintain a degree of safety while still allowing people to get back to enjoying the things we’ve been missing.