Bars & Bands

Amid backlash, iconic Worcester club clarifies position on acts

  • Posted by Bars & Bands October 28, 2020 - Filed in Entertainment - 7,000 views

    Ralph’s Rock Diner, the iconic live music venue on Grove Street in Worcester, yesterday clarified its position on booking music acts indoors. 

    The move comes amid a backlash from some in social media who questioned the safety of holding indoor acts.

    In a Facebook post on Oct. 16, Ralph’s Rock Diner announced it was “now booking bands for our upstairs venue.”

    The post garnered 218 reactions and 312 comments so far. Many of the comments were positive, but some expressed safety concerns.

    A sample of the reaction: 

    • “Not a wise choice” 
    • “We love Ralph’s. It’s our absolute favorite venue in MA. But we can’t get behind this just yet.”
    • “You're breaking my heart here. Wildly irresponsible.”
    • “This is very much breaking my heart too. My late wife and I met at Ralphs. She would be heartbroken as well to learn about this.”
    • “This is such an awful decision and you should be ashamed of yourselves. Just because you are over the pandemic doesn’t mean it isn’t a real thing still”

     

    On Tuesday afternoon, Ralph’s clarified that it was hoping to generate “a roster of bands lined up for when shows can happen.”

    The full clarification: “A lot of people were rightfully upset by a post a few days back announcing that we were going to begin booking bands upstairs. The post was vague and people were right to assume we would begin putting on shows immediately. That wasn’t our intention. We would never jeopardize the health and safety of our customers or employees, and we take the restaurant guidelines issued by the state extremely seriously. Worcester is a high-risk community and as long as it remains that way Ralph’s will not host an indoor show. The hope, and the intention of the post, was to gather a roster of bands lined up for when shows can happen under the guidelines presented to us by the city.  We're hopeful when that day arrives we can present live music to all of you again safely and we look forward to that day.“

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