As the pandemic has evolved, we've been working to keep pace. Since pandemic conditions vary over time, so do our safety procedures. Bluesy Tuesy and Second Sun Rising share a pandemic response strategy, and are the only event series we know of that vary mask requirements by pandemic conditions, this is experimental as of Spring-Summer 2024 and we're still learning as we go.
Our Procedures
We have four precaution levels:
We watch the local wastewater numbers and the state hospitalization dashboard and mortality counts. The numbers we use to move between precaution levels change over time. We try to give at least 36 hours notice before an event if there's a precaution level change.
We almost always have air filters at our indoor events, and we ventilate as much as the weather allows for. If we find out someone may have been contagious at an event, we try to notify attendees that they may have been exposed. Currently notification is by posting a comment on the facebook event where exposure was possible, we expect to restart email notifications on a new system sometime in late 2024.
In formulating our pandemic strategy, it's important to note that as of Spring 2024, as far as we know from talking to community members, the number of people in our dance community who cannot dance in masks for various medical reasons is approximately equal to the number who will not attend mask optional events.
Results to Date
We restarted dance events in March of 2022 with both masking required and vaccination required. From March thru December, Bluesy Tuesy and Second Sun Rising together held 36 events and checked just over 400 individuals. A combined total of 3 medical exemptions were made (one unvaxxed, two unboosted).
In the Summer of 2022, June thru August, we ran several outdoor events which did not have controlled access; since we were out in public, anyone could walk up and join in, and we had a host try to spot people, ask for a donation, and check them in. This resulted in an additional two unboosted dancers and three that we have names for but no vaccination data.
In 2022, we had five reports of people who were probably positive and possibly contagious during events in 2022 (two at Double Up in April, one at Antumbra in May, two at two different Bluesy Tuesys in December). At least two attendees of September 2022's Second Sun Rising reported that the state contact tracing app alerted them to being exposed, and one subsequently had covid, so we have one known possible transmission occuring at our events.
In 2023, we had three reports of people who were positive at dances, one in February and one in November, one in December.
By the start of March 2023 when Bluesy Tuesy and Second Sun Rising dropped vaccination requirements, we had held 47 events and checked over 500 individuals. Due to various issues there were 57 people we did not obtain a contact tracing email address for and 16 whose vaccination status we didn't have recorded.
In April 2024, we rolled in a three-tier precaution system and changed over to mask optional dances. In July, as covid numbers increased, we realized we needed a "masks recommended" precaution level, and went to that level for the July 14 and 16 events.
In 2024, we've had four reports as of Aug 1. One person may have been contagious at the Jan 2 dance, one person may have been either contagious or caught covid or neither at the Jan 16 event (they tested positive on Jan 18). Then there was a long gap, and we had someone possibly contagious on July 5 and someone probably contagious on July 16.
Overall, we feel fairly proud of our level of response and results, both from our volunteers and our community. It's been a lot of work. We've had people tell us we were not being safe enough, and we've had people tell us we're too cautious or that they would not come to a masked event, often both in the same week. We have yet to hear anyone claim that dancing in masks is more fun.
By November 2023, we'd had 20 months of pandemic-era dancing and only one known possible transmission (where we know we had someone positive at the event, and someone after the event became positive), Jan 2024 added a second possible transmission (but that's less concrete since all we know is that by two days after the person was positive). As of July 16 2024, we've held 135 pandemic-era events, and had at least 950 different people dance with us.
Footnote: For those not familiar with the local scene, Antumbra is a joint weekend put on by Second Sun Rising and Eclipse whenever the first day of a month is a Sunday (May 2023, Sep and Dec 2024), and Double Up was a joint evening put on once by Bluesy Tuesy and JP Jitterbugs that might return sometime.