Downtown Friday switches to virtual live concerts in Santa Maria

SANTA MARIA, Calif. - After postponing Downtown Fridays several times due to the Coronavirus pandemic organizer Ed Carcarey is finally putting his foot down. “Now we’re tired of postponing we’re going to start virtually.”

The online event starts next week.

“Which means we’re gonna go virtual which means we’re going to play the bands live in a secret location,” said Carcarey.

The concerts will be played on 8 Facebook pages and several radio stations.

While organizers of Downtown Fridays prepare for the virtual concerts they say some vendors might not survive the COVID-19 pandemic.

Among those 70 vendors is Rene Solis with Satellite Latino. “It does affect us ... we are down 35 to 40 percent of our business ... COVID-19 is you know a pandemic that we’re dealing with. We have to protect ourselves protect our customers."

In addition to the concerts organizers plan to include six food trucks scattered across Downtown Santa Maria.

While Carcarey is moving forward with the virtual concerts he says that could change depending on how the pandemic plays out. “It’s possible and we will be flexible so if it changed two weeks from now and we knew we could go live we could shift gears within seven days.”

The virtual concerts are set to run from August 7 to November 27.