COLUMBUS, Ohio — Several central Ohio concert and performance venues have made big changes to their masking policies after the decision to lift the indoor mask mandate in the City of Columbus.
“Masks are no longer required at Nationwide Arena, so from a COVID protocol standpoint, we're no longer requiring masks. But if people want to wear masks, they certainly can do that,” said Mike Gatto, Senior Vice President of Columbus Arena Sports and Entertainment.
The Schottenstein and Covelli Centers are also changing their policy after Ohio State University decided to make masks optional on Friday for most indoor spaces. But for the Schott and Coveilli Centers, this change is effective immediately.
On the other hand, CAPA, or Columbus Association for the Performing Arts, is one organization that decided to keep masks for just a little longer before making them optional for the most part.
“All of our venues, as of April 4, we are dropping both our mask policy of mask requirement and our vaccination requirement,” said Chad Whittington, President and CEO of CAPA.
Masks and proof of vaccination or a negative test will still be required at CAPA for about a month.
“We felt like we needed to give people a little bit of a notice for asking people in large numbers to be in close quarters. A lot of people bought tickets with the expectation that we were going to have that mask mandate and the vaccination policy in place so we want to give everybody some time to adjust to the changes that we announced,” Whittington said.
Whittington said some artists and shows could still require masks and it will be up to the performers.
Employees of Nationwide and Arena the Schottenteini Center will also have the option to not wear a mask unless they work for a private food vendor, which could require them.