Mayor Steinberg thanks Sacramento performance venues for requiring vaccinations

Sacramento (Sept. 1, 2021) When Harlow’s reopens this weekend with a full roster of concerts, patrons will be required to show proof of full vaccination upon entry, as they have for the four shows that the popular concert venue held in August.

Same at the Torch Club, the Crest Theatre, Laughs Unlimited and the Russ Room above Solomon’s Deli on K Street.

Many small and mid-size Sacramento music venues have proactively adopted vaccination requirements over the past two months, even though they are not required to.

Gov. Newsom has announced that indoor events with 1,000 or more attendees will have to require vaccinations or negative Covid tests starting Sept. 20, but those rules don’t cover smaller venues that seat a few hundred, like Harlow’s.

Nonetheless, a group of independent venues in Sacramento that joined during the pandemic to form the California Capitol Venues Association supports requiring vaccines for patrons, performers and workers even without a government mandate.

Marina Texeira, third generation owner of The Torch Club in midtown, announced back in July that patrons would have to show proof of vaccination or a negative Covid test at the door. “I saw venues in Europe starting to do it with the increase (in Delta variant cases) and I also saw what was happening in LA,” Texeira said. “I thought we should get on board sooner rather than later.”

The Sacramento business community has taken different approaches to requiring vaccinations or covid tests. Some worry about customer pushback, but others, like Harlow’s, are more concerned that a surge in cases of the highly contagious Delta variant will shut them down again if they don’t take precautions.

“When it came down to it a couple of months ago and we were talking about reopening, everyone in our industry started to get scared again,” said Julia Heath, Director of Operations at Harlow’s. “We decided that if we were going to move forward we were going to do it in a way that was safe for our patrons, our staff and our artists.”

Alanna Perry and Melanie Tannehill work at the Torch Club

Mayor Steinberg supports vaccination requirements as one of the most effective ways to stop the current surge in cases and fully emerge from the pandemic. He praised the independent venues in Sacramento that have been brave enough to take this step, even though it may cost them some business in the short run.

“A business leader recently said this to me," ‘I would rather that you be mad at me than dead,’” Mayor Steinberg said. “If we don’t do everything in our power to reduce the spread of this virus, we will regret it, and many more people will die.”

Harlow’s announced its policy on July 30 and faced significant blowback on social media, much of it from people in other states.

“People in the community have been really supportive of us and going to bat for us and fighting with these people who were not saying very nice things,” Heath said. “People say that I didn’t feel safe going to a show before, but now I do.”

The club also requires that patrons attending concerts wear masks, something Heath said, something people seem to accept. “We had a punk show the other day, and it just warmed my heart to see all these punks with masks on. There were like six people moshing in the middle of the floor with masks on. It was amazing.”