The Omicron variant is spreading like wildfire and caught up with two major American cultural events on Wednesday: the Grammy Awards, which report sine die their awards ceremony, and the Sundance Film Festival which resolved to a 100% virtual formula.
Citing the “uncertainties surrounding the Omicron variant”, the Academy of Record, which organizes the Grammy Awards, considered that the maintenance of the show scheduled for January 31 in Los Angeles “simply involves too many risks”.
A new date for this evening traditionally bringing together hundreds of artists will be announced “soon”, the statement said.
The organizers of the Sundance festival, which was due to open Jan. 20 in Utah, also had to give in to the “surprisingly high transmission rates of the Omicron variant”, forgoing all the events planned in the flesh.
The festival will therefore take place again “this year online”, they deplore, regretting that they cannot implement the “hybrid experience” that they had prepared, precisely taking into account this new variant of the coronavirus.
Omicron has become the majority variant of COVID-19 in the United States, where more than a million new cases of contamination were recorded in 24 hours last Monday, a record.
Much more contagious than the previous ones, this mutation seems to lead to generally less severe cases, but nevertheless leads to an increase in absences for illness, causing dysfunctions in many sectors, in particular that of health.
“The health and safety of members of the music community, the public and the hundreds of people who work tirelessly to produce our show remain our number one priority,” argues the Académie du CD.
The organizers of the Sundance Festival have a similar mindset: “We don’t believe it is safe or even feasible to bring together thousands of artists, spectators, staff, volunteers and partners from around the world for eleven days of festival while overwhelmed communities struggle to provide essential services ”.
The price season threatened?
The nominations of the Grammy Awards this year gave pride of place to diversity and youth, such as Justin Bieber, Olivia Rodrigo or rapper Doja Cat, led by Jon Batiste, 35-year-old African-American jazz pianist and his eleven nominations .
Last year, the Grammy gala evening had already had to be postponed due to the coronavirus, but had finally adapted to health requirements – tests and social distancing – to produce a show particularly well suited to television broadcasting, rich in spectacular performance.
The 2022 edition was supposed to return to a more traditional formula at a large stadium in downtown Los Angeles.
The Sundance Film Festival, co-founded by actor Robert Redford and renowned for its ability to spot future talent among independent films (Reservoir Dogs by Quentin Tarantino, Damien Chazelle with Whiplash), had already been forced to a 100% virtual edition in January 2021.
The organizers had sensed the Omicron threat coming and had imagined a hybrid approach, for the question-and-answer sessions for example.
These precautions were not enough, casting doubt on the conditions under which the major events of the American film awards season will be able to take place in the weeks to come.
The Golden Globes are still scheduled for January 9 since they are the target of a boycott from Hollywood and have scheduled an awards ceremony without public or media.
The Oscars remain to this day scheduled for March 27.