Revival Music Room set to open for first time since COVID-19 shutdown

The Revival Music Room is once again ready to bring entertainment to the Queen City, but it’s going to need to take a page from the movie Footloose to comply with restrictions.

“There are no dance floors whatsoever. We have our entire dance floor roped off for now. We encourage people to dance in their seats if they want and have fun, but there will be no dancing (on the dance floor),” said co-owner and general manager Jason Gervais.

The Revival has been shut down since mid-March due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Venues at which live music is played were given the green light to reopen July 6 as part of the provincial government’s Re-Open Saskatchewan plan.

“Restaurants and some lounges and bars have been opening, but we’re primarily a live music venue so we figured it’s better just to hold on and wait a little longer and see what kind of news comes about. We ended with live music; we want to fire up with live music,” Gervais said.

It’s opening up for the first time Friday at 7 p.m., but the restrictions are going to be more than just the lack of a dance floor.

“Safety is our utmost concern here for our patrons and employees. With proper social distancing of the tables and the washrooms and allowing distance between the band and the front tables — that’s 12 feet there — that’s less than a third of our capacity. We’re at about a quarter,” Gervais said, noting the room’s normal capacity is 220 people.

“Because of the limited capacity, we can have up to tables of six, like groups of six. We prefer that people try to get together and get a group out and reserve a table rather than show up with just one or two people. It’s going to be a lot harder to sit those people. You sit two people at a table of six, that takes away four chairs and the next group can’t sit with them.”

People can make reservations online on the venue’s website.

As soon as people walk in, they’ll need to clarify if they are from out of province. Temperatures will be taken at the door, people will be asked to sanitize their hands and they’ll be asked to write down their names and contact numbers.

Masks are encouraged but not mandatory.

The maximum band size the Revival will be having is a four-piece, with bigger bands getting recommended to try the Turvey Centre due to it being a larger space.

While some bands have been hesitant to come back, there have been a few champing at the bit to return to the stage.

But Gervais said he needs to find a new way to ensure bands are properly compensated with fewer people being able to enjoy the show.

“We had a formula we work with the bands that has a lot to do with the cover charge at the door,” Gervais said. “Now that our capacity is going to be substantially less, I’m looking at ways to try and give some sort of guarantee but we’re all in this together.

“I’m going to be down a lot myself. Everybody’s willing to work with each other and do what we can to get though these tough times.”

He admitted things are going to be tough for the venue for the next little while.

“Right now there’s the wage subsidy which could be extended so that’s going to help us,” he said. “There has been some government assistance which will help keep us going for a while, but we’ll see what’s going to happen.”