As part of the first phase of renovations, employees with Sunburst Fabrications weld steel beams for the new stage at Les Schwab Amphitheater on Thursday, March 18, 2021. The first phase is expected to be completed by this summer and will include a larger stage and accessibility improvements to the venue.

Independent venues in Oregon are frustrated by a lack of guidance from state government about how or when they can reopen safely and feel they are not being treated fairly.

On Wednesday, members of the Independent Venue Coalition, a lobbying group consisting of venues and promoters from across the state, sat in on session with Leah Horner, jobs and economy adviser to Gov. Kate Brown, and state epidemiologist Dr. Dean Sidelinger. Coalition founder Jim Brunberg, who co-owns Portland venues Mississippi Studios, Revolution Hall and Polaris Hall, said the format of the meeting was changed at the last minute, and the coalition was not able to present any information.

“It was originally scheduled as a meeting but was changed into a webinar at the last minute,” he said. “None of the plans — we weren’t allowed to present any of the plans we as an industry put considerable time into.”

In addition, a coalition of events groups sent a letter to the governor’s office seeking inclusion in reopening plans like churches, restaurants or other gathering spaces. Among the organizations pushing the governor for guidance was the Les Schwab Amphitheater.

Les Schwab Amphitheater Director Marney Smith said the letter also asked the governor’s office to allow for consistent “ramp up time” to book artists and create events, that venues be allowed to operate at full capacity with appropriate safety measures 30 days after a county hits the lower-risk category and the vaccine has been made available to all adults. If capacity restrictions are necessary, to base these on science and data “rather than a simple integer.”

Churches, retail stores or grocery stores are allowed to open at 75% capacity at the lower-risk category. Currently, at the lower risk level, indoor and outdoor entertainment establishments can have 50% occupancy and must close at midnight. Deschutes County is currently in the moderate-risk category.

“We’re responsible operators with plans in place to mitigate risk of transmission: additional cleaning measures, additional entry and egress lines, additional sanitation stations and bathrooms, added signage, vaccinated staff, masks on all venue/event staff,” said Beau Eastes, Les Schwab Amphitheater marketing director. “We truly are the best industry to handle the management of crowds safely.”

But a follow-up email sent by Alex Campbell, regional solutions coordinator for Oregon’s Southern Region, to David Schmitz, executive director of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, provides different information. “I would encourage your event planners to plan for contingencies, but it is not unreasonable to be planning more “normal” events for the second half of the summer — perhaps earlier,” Campbell said in the email, which was forwarded to The Bulletin by Smith.

“That is specifically what we were asking for, is acknowledgement that we have to plan ahead,” Smith said, “and that we’re going to be mobilizing and taking some — I don’t know if leap of faith is the right way to say it, but we’re going to take some educated guesses based on scientific data on what is going to be safe moving forward based on vaccine availability and infection rates and hospitalization rates and all that fun stuff. … We’ve got to plan in April for July. That’s still cutting it pretty close, so we’re happy to have acknowledgement of the timeline it takes to mobilize these events and the value that they have with the community. That made me a little lighter on my feet this morning.”

Brunberg was less optimistic, saying that he “(doesn’t) buy it.”

With booking for late summer events already well underway in nearby states such as Washington, Idaho, Arizona and Montana, many are worried Oregon will be passed over, and that the damage to reputations could be catastrophic.

“We’re not financially able to move forward with planning a normal festival until we have some sort of reassurance from Oregon that there is at least a possibility that we can be looking somewhat back-to-normal once all adults have had a chance to have that vaccine,” said Crista Munro, executive director of the Sisters Folk Festival. Brunberg said many coalition venues are considering legal action against the state. Les Schwab Amphitheater and the Sisters Folk Festival are not among them, however.

Liz Merah, press secretary for Brown, said via email that the state recently expanded outdoor entertainment capacity by removing hard caps and transitioning to the 50% limit reflected in the lower-risk category.

“The current risk level framework was designed to be sustainable over the long term while we work to stop the spread of COVID-19, and it will remain in place for the time being,” she wrote in the email. “We will continue to assess the situation and plan for what is next should case numbers decrease and vaccine availability increase.”