A Florida gig promoter has come up with a way of making sure that as many fans as possible attending an upcoming punk show have been vaccinated.
Paul Williams of Leadfoot Productions is putting on a gig at VFW Post #39 in St. Petersburg, Florida on June 26, featuring performances from Teenage Bottlerocket, MakeWar and Rutterkin.
In a bid to curb the spread of the coronavirus, Williams has instituted a price of $18 per ticket for those who have been fully vaccinated, and $999.99 for those who haven’t.
“We’re just trying to do a show safely,” Williams told WFTS. “And they should go out and get vaccinated to protect themselves and their families and their community.”
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis recently declared that those living in Florida have the right to get vaccinated or not and “no business or government entity will be able to deny you services based on your decision.”
With that said, knowing he couldn’t force anyone who wasn’t vaccinated not to attend the show, Williams came up with the idea for the unique ticket pricing instead.
Speaking to ABC News, he added: “I also wanted it to be a vaccine drive to get the fence-sitters off the fence. I wanted to get the kids that want to go to shows to go out and get their shots.”
So far there has been no takers for the $1,000 tickets, but Williams has said that if anyone does buy one they will “be treated like everyone else”.
While the response to his ticket policy has been “overwhelmingly positive” for the most part, Williams did mention that he’s received a number of spam calls from anti-vaxxers. “To care about people being safe is very bad apparently,” he added.
Ray Carlisle of Teenage Bottlerocket, one of the bands on the line-up, is on board with the policy, telling WFTS: “We’re all vaccinated. We encourage everyone to get vaccinated so we can see you in the pit.”
Local punk fan Brittney Wigen said: “I understand what they’re doing. I think it’s very nice of them, but it’s just not fair…I think it’s terrible because not everyone can get the vaccine. I can’t because I had COVID too recently.”
You can pick up $18 or $1,000 tickets to the show here.