I knew it was coming. I checked the iPhone app every day to see the inevitable announcement that the 2020 season at The Hollywood Bowl would officially be canceled. But every day I checked, I found a little comfort in seeing no updates to that effect. Today, the day I had dreaded for the past two months, finally reared its ugly little head. The 2020 Hollywood Bowl Season is canceled.
If you’ve ever dealt with someone losing their battle to serious disease, you know that you can only prepare yourself so much for their passing. You tell yourself that the end is coming and you’ll be fine. But when it happens, suddenly you are adrift.
This feels very much the same. I knew it was only a matter of time before this pandemic forced the Los Angeles Philharmonic to pull the plug. After all, how can they make social distancing work in a venue that seats 17,500 people? There isn’t a practical way to do it physically and there is certainly no economic way to make it work in order to pay the artists scheduled to perform or the hundreds of employees who work each and every concert.
Many of the artists scheduled to perform this summer were probably canceling or rescheduling tours. That would have impacted the Bowl schedule even if a reduced version or later-starting season was possible. But for the most part, those artists will survive.
What about the orchestra members? The security staff? The food service personnel? The ushers? The parking lot attendants? Losing the Hollywood Bowl season is a bigger blow for them than perhaps anyone else.
No doubt all of this was part of the discussions that lead to our having a summer without the Bowl. I’m certain these were extraordinarily difficult decisions to make. But as much as we are all going to miss our nights under the stars in the Cahuenga Pass, it was the right decision.
It is looking more and more like 2020 will be the year when we realized how much we missed. How much was lost. How much will be gone forever.
The Hollywood Bowl will not be gone forever. But forgive me for feeling like it is…at least for now.
Note: The season at the Ford Amphitheatre, also run by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, has also been canceled.
Photo of The Hollywood Bowl courtesy of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.