Sheryl Crow, Jason Isbell And More Lead First Moon Crush Vacation In Miramar Beach

As more and more Americans gets vaccinated live music is making a slow comeback. There was the big Vax Live show in L.A. with Eddie Vedder, Foo Fighters, J. Lo and more on May 2.

But even before that 2,000 fans descended on Miramar Beach, Florida, April 26 -April 30, for the first ever Moon Crush Vacation, with Sheryl Crow, Jason Isbell,   Lake Street Drive, NEEDTOBREATHE, Grace Potter, the Revivalists and more.

Created for a COVID world, the uniquely designed event offered socially distanced coves for each party to watch the show a safe distance from each other, as well as the opportunity to pre-purchase and stock coolers that would be waiting for patrons when they arrived at their cove.

Obviously putting a show on in these times requires creativity and some different spins. But, for the performers being back in front of an audience was a much needed return to their normalcy.

"I’ve been performing for a long time, so being on the road and playing with my band is ingrained, familiar. But coming together after this painful separation really feels like a renewal," Crow says. "To exchange that joy with the audience, to feel the energy of hope in everyone - I have tremendous gratitude for it. Of course there are anxieties that come with traveling, and with work ongoing to ensure everybody's safety at gigs, it means things will remain different for fans, venues, and performers for a while yet. But that’s okay, because we are fighting this together, and small things like a concert can help remind us why it’s important to keep doing that until the fight is done." 

The members of Lake Street Drive shared that sense of hope and feeling of relief to be once again in front of a live audience.

"First of all, we are incredibly grateful to the hard work of many individuals and the miracles of modern science that have allowed us to safely walk back on stage together today," they say."We have wished for this for many months and there were times we thought it might never happen again and now it feels like it's happening so fast. After so many months of quiet solitude, walking into a music festival again is a sort of out of body experience. It's kind of like the first time you return to your high school after you've graduated. You are walking into a scene that you know so well, and an energy that lives vividly in your memories. And it is all moving like it used to, and alive just like you remember it, but you have changed. Playing for the audience tonight will surely be another level of surreal nostalgia and incomprehensible gratitude. We're overjoyed to be back."

Moon Crush is the brainchild of Andy Levine, who tells me the impetus for the vacation, which they call it as opposed to a festival, came when he moved down to Miramar Beach a year or so ago. Though the event started in a COVID America this will absolutely continue in a hopefully post-COVID world, with events already scheduled for this fall and next spring.

Though those are scheduled for Miramar Beach as well, he hopes to do more of the events around the country and even globally,

I spoke with Levine about putting on an event in COVID, how the event will merge the safety and convenience elements utilized now, including pre-packed coolers that fans can order, and the artists who helped jump start the Moon Crush show.

Steve Baltin: When was the last time you had a show day?

Andy Levine: The last show at this scale was over a year ago for us. The last one we did was back in Atlanta last February. This is our first full on Moon Crush expanded vacation at this capacity.

Baltin: When did you start working on this?

Levine: We announced this November 19, but we started working on it last June. I moved from Atlanta during COVID to Miramar Beach. I never really had been here and as we were kind of watching people vacation with their family and friends and staying together and cooking at home and going to the beach and the cases weren't rising. And we were watching what people were doing with distance, six feet and with masks, we thought, "What if we could do both?" There was a golf course right across the street from the beach and I met with the owners and they said, "That sounds amazing. This is a great time of year to bring people because it's after spring break and before the summer." So we started the end of June and we announced November. We didn't think this many people would be vaccinated. I think we have close to 80 to 90 percent of our people have been fully vaccinated.

Baltin: Was there a first artist who jumped on and opened the doors for this?

Levine: From my previous career doing festivals on cruise ships, we went to artists we knew that we knew trusted us. We sent the maps and videos and said, "Hey, I think we can do it." They were like, "Let's do it." Their calendars were open. No one had anything on the books so they were available. It was one of these: "If you can do that, then we're in." Then we got the Revivalists, Sheryl Crow, then NEEDTOBREATHE, then once it gets rolling people are like, "Okay, well if it's good enough for them I'm sure it's good enough for me."

Baltin: How much of the stuff you are doing during COVID do you think will be used in Moon Crush going forward?

Levine: I am so glad you are talking about that because our entire company was designed for that. We are trying to create things like this for artists where they have virtual ways for them to connect, but we also have vacations. A lot of the bands are on vacations with their families this week. The Revivalists, I saw them at the beach yesterday just having a moment, I was like, "Yes, we're giving them this with their wives and stuff." I think also this is an opportunity to strip out the things about the concert experience that we weren't really loving, like waiting in line for beer, having beer spilled on us or having to elbow your way back to your friends, or missing part of the show cause you're waiting in line. I 100 percent agree post COVID it's going to be, "This is the new expectation because it can be done, whether it's technology or whatever." I absolutely agree this is going to be the way forward. I think, for us, we look at it as we're just going to be able to make our coves closer together so that we can increase our capacity. But we plan to continue the cove because there are a lot of introverts who love the cove. It's funny, I have all these people coming up to me, "Thank you, this has been so great for me." So I think there is a way to serve both people, (the extroverts and introverts.)

Baltin: What have been the one or two things introduced in COVID in addition to the cove that will be used going forward?

Levine: For me, I think the cooler, the idea where you can buy your cooler in advance and stick it through an app and have it waiting for you is people are freaking out. Those sold out so quickly. I wish we had more. People love the idea of walking up to their cove and having that, number one. Number two, if you don't have a cooler you can order from the app and someone comes and delivers it to you so you don't have to miss the show. And then obviously the vacation element. We're really excited about mixing a vacation with friends and family into a music event. And we're not scheduling all day. We're only doing three acts a day, we may go four or so. But we want people to have time. We've got almost 2000 people at the beach right now having these great moments as we speak. And they're gonna have a great day and make their way to the show.