While the coronavirus pandemic has led authorities around the globe to cancel concerts and sporting events, and even shut down daily activities in some places, Mexico City is going ahead with Vive Latino — one of the most important music festivals in the country.Some acts backed out, but tens of thousands of music fans flocked on Saturday to the first day of the festival, which still expected Guns N’ Roses, Carlos Vives and Zoe to be among its headliners. Organizers said more than 70,000 tickets had been sold for each of the festival’s two days.Concerns about the new COVID-19 illness were evident, though.At the entrance, the usual security checks for such events had a new filter: Each person entering was checked for fever and a strong smell of antibacterial gel permeated in the air.
As you can imagine, reactions south of the border were mixed. I heard them from a couple of contacts. One said that the government was reckless and the other laughed the whole virus thing off as an overreaction.
Was it reckless or an overreaction? Honestly I don’t know.
In fact, I was on a business trip to Mexico City a few years ago and recall a big debate about “women only” subway cars. I believe that it passed, in large part because men supported the idea of protecting their wives and daughters from too many hands up to no good.
So will Mexico shut down the “metro” for a day or two to isolate people? I don’t know, but those trains get very crowded and people are breathing on each other.
