ROLESVILLE, NC – A DJ said Thursday next New Year’s Eve should more than make up for it.
A year ago Austin played bowling at a party in 2020.
“My buddy turned to me at some point. He said I was the first person he saw this year and the last person he saw last year, ”he said. “That was my last jazz gig so far.”
The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in New Years Eve parties being canceled across the state, leaving DJs and musicians like bowling out of seats on the last night of the year. Instead, he spends the evening at home practicing when the nightclubs reopen.
“This year we would have been doing something like Roaring Twenties-style ’20s parties, so a lot of electro swing and stuff,” he said. “I was really looking forward to bringing out a lot of this music, but unfortunately it won’t happen.”
Even the greatest New Year’s Eve traditions are not immune.
First Night Raleigh gave up its annual downtown concert and the acorn drop. Instead, the organization set up a drive-through light show in Dorothea Dix Park. Other cities like Fuquay-Varina have their own light shows. The North Carolina-based band The Avett Brothers gave up their New Years extravaganza in favor of a virtual concert in which, among other things, the country legend Willie Nelson appeared.
2020 was not an easy year for bowling. Virtually every party he would normally hang up for has been canceled. He was still able to entertain at 18 weddings this year, although in a normal year he said he was closer to 40. Even so, Bowling said he was still optimistic. He said he had already answered numerous wedding DJ requests for 2021, which is a sign of pent-up demand.
“One of my friends said, ‘You know, as soon as we get things going again, it will be back to the 1920s. ‘And I really think so,’ he said.