Event Designer Bobby Garza in Austin, in a Pandemic: ‘The Reality is We’re Not 100% Back for 24 Months’

After the concert company shut down in mid-March, Bobby Garza unexpectedly shifted from placing on live events to ripping down them — his company, Austin-based Forefront Networks, had to cancel the California food-and-music festival Yountville Live after that month, and enormous productions such as December’s Trail of Lights in Austin are in question, too. In early April, his entire life changed more radically: Forefront furloughed 30 percent of its staff, such as him.

As part of Billboard’s efforts to best cover the coronavirus pandemic and its impacts on the audio business, we’ll be talking with Garza, a 43-year-old Forefront creative team leader that used to be general director of festival producer Transmission Events, every other week on to chronicle his experience throughout the crisis. (Read the latest setup here and realize the full series here.)

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How is the first week of college for your two kids?

We’re figuring it out. All three people on Zoom in exactly the identical time is likely what every parent is shaking their fist at the gods around right now. It’s likely to begin getting glitchy, and among us either won’t be able to learn or won’t be able to get the job done. I don’t understand that you resolve it.

How can scheduling conflict for your children ’ classes along with your contract job?

I’m in the middle of writing a proposal deck to the concept improvement for the Long Center [a live venue in Austin] — they have this thing called the Rollins Sessions, along with the production team and the programming team have come together with this worldwide agreement on what it must look like and how we pull existing resources and the way we’re smart about positioning it. All of that’s in my mind. The majority of the time, I want to catch it as quickly as I will, to get it all on paper. Instead of that, I looked at the clock and realized that it ’s 11:45 and my kids have a defined period for if they’re designed to get lunch and had to come downstairs and begin cooking. I feel pretty strongly about not only giving them crap to eat.

Just how much do such conflicts affect your job program?

The times are longer. This is probably the case for a good deal of parents. The times start a lot sooner today that college is back, however once I get them set up, I go work for just a little while, and if they’re done , I attempt to stop or not consuming meetings so I can make sure they’ve got things to do and also a snack to eat and my youngest is tucked into his after-school programs. When they go to bed, I’ll leap back to my computer and attempt to crank out another hour or a couple of things.

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That seems stressful. What do you do to take care of yourself?

[Laughs.] That’s a fantastic question! Here is the first week which I’ve made a conscious decision to attempt and begin doing some of the things which I used to perform — attempting to exercise at least once every day, such as yesterday I went to get a jog, the day before that we did martial arts, even the day before that I did some strength-training in your home. That stuff is really helping.

What other projects are you working on in the Long Center?

I had been telling you all about the Rollins Sessions [livestreams starring neighborhood artists in the Rollins Theatre]. They’ve done a couple of those. I want to consider them in a different way. These digital events get a tiny same-y. The Long Center wanted to find content quickly, which is exactly right for what had been happening a couple of months ago. You don’t want the building to be darkened, you want there to be action, you want people to remember [the theatre] is there. Are there any quality improvements we can make? Could we think about different camera shots? Can we consider batching generation so we are able to get more content, [rather] than standing up one session, tearing everything down andtwo weeks after, doing exactly the identical thing? What sorts of cameras are you currently using? Here is the deck I’m working : attempting to get this to the executive team so we can begin reserving some bands and making things happen, hopefully [by] end of this month.

Are you beginning to consider whether your previous occupation comes back if this is all over?

I would like ’t understand. I’m not thinking in those terms at the moment. I’m thinking about the opportunity I have right now, which is part-time, however I’m hopeful this becomes a task. The reality for the audio industry is that we ’re not 100% straight back for 24 weeks. It doesn’t flip a switch. Tours don’t happen overnight. I would like ’t know how many staff can hang on without changing careers. That’s among the most tragic things to consider.

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Twenty-four weeks! Does that include the six weeks we’ve already had?

Yes, likely. Despite very responsible security precautions, particularly for larger places, and places that do ’t have appropriate ventilation, I believe it’s next summer. Just how far back do you have to plan for things which ’s likely to sell 2,000 tickets? For festivals, it’s cyclical procedure, it occurs on a 12-month calendaryear. Independent productions have to put out money to have the ability to hold gear and set down deposits for bands. How can you do that should you’re not embracing cashflow right now? It’s likely to take a couple of pulls on the rope to get the engine started.

That finishes the substantive part of our dialogue. Today we have to talk about ukuleles.

[Whispers.] Can’t talk about it very loud, however, my sister bought my child, for his birthday, a brand fresh ukulele, and I’m very enthusiastic about it. It’s acoustic, electrical and cutaway. And gloomy marble. It’s amazing. I believe I’will get him some app-based lessons. He also ’s been playing bass guitar a great deal. He began his jazz group.

What are some songs you’Have been enjoying lately with your kids?

I pulled out a couple Beatles songs: “Hey Jude” from earlier, also “Let It Be” had been the other one. One we began playing together was “Tonight You Belong to Me” the tune from The Jerk, also a terrific tune and my favourite role in that film. We’re going to develop a 15-minute repertoire of very basic ukulele songs.

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