High schoolers celebrate senior year with socially distant 'pens' at EDM concert
The class of 2020 and the rising senior class of 2021 in Grafton, Wis. got a unique chance to celebrate their senior year on Sunday with a socially distant EDM concert in a parking lot with designated “pens.”
The senior night celebration was hosted by KAPCO Metal Stamping — a metal services and solutions company — as a part of its “Live at the Lot” concert and movie series in the company’s manufacturing lot. Neil Willenson, KAPCO’s vice president of community relations, tells Yahoo Life that it was made possible with the company’s ownership of Given Entertainment — a music publishing, artist development and artist management company based in Nashville, Tenn. founded by KAPCO’s president Jim Kacmarcik — and production company KNE, which gives them access to a stage and artists for a lineup of shows.
“When the pandemic began, we met as a senior staff to say, ‘Is there something that we can do where we can still bring a sense of normalcy to our community but do it safely?’” Willenson recalls. “Because we own the stage, because we had access to musicians because we have a very large empty parking lot that we use for our manufacturing operations ...That was the origin of Live at the Loft.”
Willenson goes on to explain just how the concert series has worked throughout the past two months during the pandemic, saying that people have been given designated spaces to park and can bring their own chairs to sit just outside of their vehicles while maintaining a safe distance.
“We’ve now had over 20 different concerts and movie events,” he says. “But our president Jim Kacmarcik who has a high school graduate, he really just felt sad that the class of 2020 and possibly the class of 2021, the incoming seniors, are missing so many milestone events. Proms, graduations, graduation parties and other significant life events, so he just wanted to provide them a special experience.”
Since the team at KAPCO had already established protocols to host these concerts safely in the parking lot, Willenson says they felt that they could “throw a fun party for these seniors in a really safe manner.” On Sunday night, they did just that by putting up barricades to establish separate “pens” where groups that have been quarantining together could stand and enjoy the concert at a distance from other groups.
“We consulted with different local health authorities and then the Village of Grafton, which is where our venue is based, we consulted with them as well. So really, we just did a lot of research on best practices,” he explains of making the venue safe for students. “So yesterday we had a rain delay for our EDM concert because we couldn’t move it inside. ...Our guests did a great job. They certainly came with other people that they’ve been quarantining with, friends and family. But the different groups did not interact with any other groups.”
Grafton, which is located in Ozaukee County, has 104 total confirmed cases, according to Friday data from the Washington Ozaukee Public Health Department. There are 473 confirmed cumulative coronavirus cases in Ozaukee County, Wis.
He says that 175 teenagers from the Grafton area attended the concert and were treated by staff “as if they’re our own children” to ensure that they were all safe. Ultimately, KAPCO hopes to expand these socially distant events going forward.
“These types of experiences are critical to childhood, and one can only guess how long this pandemic will last and how long these restrictions will be in place,” Willenson says. “As a nation, we have to find a way to safely adjust, and that’s the leadership role we tried to take.”
For the latest coronavirus news and updates, follow along at https://news.yahoo.com/coronavirus. According to experts, people over 60 and those who are immunocompromised continue to be the most at risk. If you have questions, please reference the CDC’s and WHO’s resource guides.
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