COVID superspreader? Health officials urge extra precautions for Railbird music festival
Lexington’s first large-scale event since the COVID pandemic began will be this weekend and local health officials are watching closely.
Could the sold-out, two-day Railbird music festival at Keeneland, which is expected to draw 30,000 fans, be a COVID superspreader event?
Coronavirus safety precautions were announced Aug. 6 requiring all patrons either be fully vaccinated or test negative within 72 hours beforehand.
Dr. Daniel Rodrigue, CHI St. Joseph Health infectious disease specialist, said Tuesday that preliminary studies show other music festivals that took multiple precautions did not cause a major outbreak.
Rodrigue said this week he definitely would encourage everyone to wear masks.
“It doesn’t take much to have somebody who’s not vaccinated, who’s not masking to transmit this in a closed setting,” he said. “This is acting more infectious than it was in the beginning and all of us in the community are going to be looking closely to see what happens.”
Lollapalooza, held a month ago in Chicago with 385,000 people, has been connected to only about 200 new cases, according to published reports. The festival also are required all who attended to be fully vaccinated for the coronavirus or test negative within 72 hours. The crowd in Chicago appeared largely unmasked.
The Lexington-Fayette County Health Department said on Wednesday in a statement that “a large-scale event has the potential to create problems, and our hope is that organizers continue to put forth the protections they’ve planned for participants.”
Health department officials stressed that attendees need to take extra precautions:
- Keep distance from those not in your household.
- Don’t go to Railbird if you are sick, especially if you’ve tested positive for COVID-19.
- The festival also asks that you stay home if you’ve been exposed to someone who tested positive for COVID within the last 14 days.
Railbird COVID safety, traffic plan
According to the Railbird website, organizers will refund tickets for those who test positive and cannot attend.
At entry, everyone — including children — will have to show a printed copy of a vaccine card or record or a printed negative test result that shows the date within the last 72 hours. It is unclear how festival organizers plan to verify the paperwork.
Although a rapid COVID test will be accepted, a home test will not, according to the festival’s COVID rules web site.
Unvaccinated fans will have to wear a mask while onsite; everyone is asked to bring a mask but Railbird is not requiring vaccinated concert fans to wear one while outdoors.
The vaccination and tests check could have an impact on traffic, which was a problem even before the pandemic at the first Railbird in 2019. Organizers are encouraging fans to book seats on shuttles that will run from Blue Grass Airport and from Rupp Arena rather than expect to be able to get a ride via Uber or Lyft.
This story was originally published August 27, 2021 at 6:00 AM.
