Recently The Advocate-Messenger announced that Danville will be having the Great American Brass Band festival.

Holding a festival full of people and instruments during a pandemic is a bad idea. The festival will be held the middle of June. It’s going to be hot, and there’s bound to be people who take off their masks due to the heat.

The musicians will be blowing their own personal air all over the place. Who knows if they have the virus? Who knows how many people could get sick? It’s unprofessional and illogical to do such festivities.

Everyone understands that people want to get back to normal and have familiar things going on, but people are still getting sick, and people are still dying. It isn’t worth having people potentially lose their lives because of other people’s selfishness.

As a musician myself I wouldn’t dare do something like this.

Last year marching bands couldn’t have a season, but now people want to hold an entire festival. That’s just not smart.

At some point people need to hold themselves accountable. Until the cases drop drastically, nobody should be holding large gatherings, especially during the summer months, and especially with instruments. There is also the issue of people eating and drinking. There will be so many masks pulled down or not worn at all. It’s honestly terrifying.

To sum it all up, we shouldn’t have a festival this year. I understand that people need to get out and not be cooped up, but we shouldn’t put people at risk for our own pleasure. We all need to be safe and keep the numbers down until the vaccine is widely distributed. Danville, be safe.

Auri Mitchell

Danville