American rock band The Flaming Lips have come up with a creative way to put on live shows in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic – putting themselves and their audience in protective “space bubbles”.
The group performed two concerts over the weekend in Oklahoma, where audience members danced along while enclosed in plastic bubbles.
Audience at the socially-distanced “Space Bubble” concert, using individual inflatable bubbles to avoid the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), at the Criterion in Oklahoma City, U.S. (Picture credit: Reuters)
In pre-show posts, photographer and cameraman Nathan Poppe tweeted pictures of the venue, saying there were 100 bubbles, each capable of holding a maximum of three people.
The capsules were equipped with a speaker, fan, bottle of water, towel and a sign reading “I gotta go pee/It’s hot in here” to be shown to stewards, who escorted revellers or refilled the bubbles with cool air.
Flaming Lips’ singer performing at the socially-distanced “Space Bubble” concert. (Picture credit: Reuters)
Attendees had to wear masks when outside their bubble, but could take them off inside, an instructional video shared by lead singer Wayne Coyne, showed.
“I think we’re quite lucky that the fans of The Flaming Lips kind of like this … adventure,” Coyne, who has long been known to crowd-surf in a bubble, told the BBC.
Staff inflate individual plastic bubbles, used as a safety measure against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), for a socially-distanced concert by the Flaming Lips at the Criterion in Oklahoma. (Picture credit: Reuters)
“It’s not just another concert … you’re part of this thing and it’s never been done before … They’re quite up for it being different.”
The group had held a practice bubble show run last year when the global pandemic forced most concerts to be cancelled or postponed.
