Harry Styles announces strictest COVID tour policies yet ahead of St. Paul gig

Harry Styles – Concert tour – Vaccine

ST. LOUIS – Pop star Harry Styles and his tour promoter are requiring concertgoers to be vaccinated or show proof of a negative COVID test in order to attend a show on his upcoming tour.

Styles’ Love on Tour 2020 was postponed due to the pandemic. He’ll be performing at Enterprise Center in St. Louis on Sept. 15.

In addition to the vaccination/test policy, all guests will be required to wear masks inside each venue on the tour.

All staff at each venue must follow the same protocols as ticket holders.

Children under the age of 12 can still attend the concert if they show proof of a negative COVID test taken within 48 hours of the show.

UPDATE: Harry Styles at Enterprise Center on Sept. 15 will require proof of vaccination for entry OR a negative COVID-19 test result within 48 hours of the event in addition to wearing a mask inside the venue.

Requiring testing or proof of vaccination is becoming the standard for concerts and live entertainment around the country.

Live Nation Entertainment, the company promoting Styles’ tour, said beginning Oct. 4 all artists, tour staff, and concertgoers must either be fully vaccinated or show proof of a negative test prior to a show.

Rival promoter AEG Presents announced it would require proof of COVID-19 vaccination for anyone who attends or works one of its concerts, events, or festivals. That policy will take full effect nationwide by Oct. 1.

Harry Styles announces strictest COVID tour policies yet ahead of St. Paul gig

All dates on the British pop star’s tour will require masks in addition to proof of vaccine or negative test results.
Harry Styles performed on NBC’s “Today” show in February 2020 not long before postponing his tour.

Harry Styles is drawing a thick line for his upcoming Fine Line Tour when it comes to COVID-19 safety protocols, including for his St. Paul date at Xcel Energy Center on Sept. 22.

The pop megastar announced Wednesday that he will not only require proof of vaccine or negative test results at all his upcoming shows, he is also implementing a mask mandate each night.

This is the strictest two-part policy yet by a major concert tour since the delta variant started driving up virus infection rates again this summer. An Xcel Center representative confirmed that the new rules will be implemented at the show in St. Paul.

“Requiring testing, or proof of vaccination, is the best way to protect the health and safety of our crew and fans, and is quickly becoming the new standard for concerts around the U.S.,” reads the press release from the tour’s promoter Live Nation, which has so far left COVID rules up to the artists. “There will be no exceptions to these policies.”

The announcement specifically recognized the fact that many of Styles’ fans are not old enough to get the vaccine.

“Children under the age of 12 may attend the concert if they provide proof of a negative COVID-19 test taken within 48 hours of the show,” the release also read. (Note: That’s one day tighter than the usual 72-hour window.)

Styles was originally supposed to hit Xcel Center last summer around the release of his second solo album, “Fine Line,” but he postponed all 2020 dates during the first big COVID wave. Los Angeles indie-rock/alt-twang vet Jenny Lewis — long a favorite in the Twin Cities — is still slated to open all the U.S. dates on the tour, which is due to kick off Sept. 4 in Las Vegas.
The Jonas Brothers also announced vaccine or test-result requirements this week for all their upcoming dates, news that resulted in their Minnesota date at Mystic Lake Casino Amphitheater now being questionable.

Not many other major tours have announced such policies yet, though the Eagles — due to play two nights Oct. 1-2 at Xcel Center — did require vaccine/test-result documentation at their recent Seattle shows. Some other big acts have outright canceled tour dates out of virus fears, including Garth Brooks, Stevie Nicks, Nine Inch Nails and Florida Georgia Line.

Xcel Center also has Hall & Oates coming up on Monday and Guns N’ Roses on Sept. 21, neither of which has added any new COVID protocols.

Harry Styles

Harry Edward Styles is an English singer, songwriter and actor.

(born 1 February 1994)

His musical career began in 2010 as a solo contestant on the British music competition series The X Factor.

Following his elimination early on, he was brought back to join the boy band One Direction, which went on to become one of the best-selling boy bands of all time.

Styles released his debut self-titled solo album through Columbia Records in 2017. It debuted at number one in the UK and the US, and became one of the world’s top-ten best-selling albums of the year. Its lead single, “Sign of the Times”, topped the UK Singles Chart. The music video of “Sign of the Times” earned Styles his first Brit Award. He made his acting debut in Christopher Nolan’s 2017 war film Dunkirk. Styles’s second album, Fine Line (2019), debuted atop the US Billboard 200 with the biggest first-week sales by an English male artist in history, and was listed among Rolling Stone’s “500 Greatest Albums of All Time” in 2020. Its fourth single, “Watermelon Sugar”, topped the US Billboard Hot 100, garnering him his first Grammy Award and second Brit Award.

Throughout his career, Styles has earned several accolades, including two Brit Awards, a Grammy Award and an American Music Award. Aside from music, he is also known for his flamboyant fashion, and is the first man to appear solo on the cover of Vogue magazine.
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