Carnival of Soul

Ralph DiPietro loves to travel, dine out and especially sit in a club and listen to live jazz.

The COVID-19 pandemic has taken all of that away from him.

“I travel at least two or three times a year. My traveling is zero now,” said the 57-year-old. “I usually eat out. I haven’t eaten out at all.”

But he will be traveling to Cape May this weekend for the Exit Zero Jazz Festival.

The twice-a-year festival, which consistently brings in some of the biggest names in jazz, is happening Thursday through Sunday — outdoors and with pandemic safety protocols. The Jazz at Lincoln Center Septet with Wynton Marsalis headlines and opens the festival’s first night at 7 p.m.

The word “festival” brings to mind large groups of people sitting or standing close together, and often jazz music attracts an older audience — two things that raise immediate red flags since the outbreak of COVID-19 in March.

And Michael Kline, the festival’s executive producer and artistic director, is keenly aware of that.

“We try to give them a picture of what it’s going to look like,” said Kline, who has been putting on Exit Zero since 2012. “First thing that we tell them is you are not going to be sitting in a reserved seat at a concert. You are going to bring your chairs. You are going to sit in a reserved space. That space is going to be big enough for your two chairs. You are going to have at least 30 square feet of space on all sides of you.”

Kline knew he had to throw out his traditional model of a jazz festival with groups performing at multiple small clubs throughout town. He needed to spread things out and, more importantly, go outside.

“The cap on large events is 500. So we set that as our bar for what the capacity could be at any one venue,” he said. “And then we looked for venues who basically had acreage. … We were looking for green space.”

Kline approached the Emlen Physick Estate in the heart of Cape May. The distinctive Victorian mansion also features a vast lawn perfect for an outdoor concert. So, Kline began putting on a weekly jazz series this summer to test the waters and see if people would come.

And they did. Kline said about 100 people would come out each week to the series.

That encouraged him to try another location that had a big open space — the Hawk Haven Vineyard and Winery in the Rio Grande section of Middle Township. At those weekly music shows, between 250 and 300 people would show up — sitting outside, socially distanced and wearing masks until they sat in their designated area.

“The feedback from patrons was that they love this and keep it going. They were buying tickets,” Kline said. “You roll these things out, and you never know if anyone is going to come. It’s always a big risk, but especially so in the middle of a pandemic.”

With the fall date for the jazz festival fast approaching and with some successful outdoor shows under his belt, Kline decided in mid-August not to postpone Exit Zero like he was forced to do in April. Realizing outside in November would not be pleasant, he petitioned Cape May to move up the date of the festival to the first weekend in October.

He also reached out to a few larger outdoor venues in the county. Soon, Cape May Brewing Company at the Cape May County Airport and the Nauti Spirits Distillery in Cape May signed up.

Convincing jazz fans, especially older ones, to return was an important step. He said the festival has a core group of a few hundred people that come twice a year, and he knew that detailed safety protocols would be key to convincing them to come this time around.

He relied on guidelines presented by the Event Safety Alliance, a nonprofit “dedicated to promoting ‘life safety first’ throughout all phases of event production and execution.”

“We do everything we can to make people feel comfortable to come if they make that choice,” Kline said. “Then, it’s just trying to convey to them how serious we are about all these guidelines and how serious that we all respect them.”

DiPietro was sold. Since 2012, he has driven from his home in Silver Spring, Maryland, twice a year to go to Exit Zero, buying VIP tickets each time.

He came to a couple of Kline’s summer shows and feels entirely comfortable with this weekend’s setup.

“The thing that has been impressive to me is he won’t tolerate people who won’t wear masks,” DiPietro said. “He has put (shows) on at places that have a lot of land and a lot of social distancing. He’s not packing it in. He’s not jamming 1,000 people into a little square box.”

Kline has also been careful to make the area safe for the performers. He has the stage set up so there’s no contact with the crowd. He bought several UV light wands to sanitize the stage and the equipment. He also has Plexiglas screens on stage in case band members need or want to be separated.

Bill Walton and his rock band will play the festival for the first time, and the Egg Harbor Township resident said after playing a couple of Kline’s shows this summer he’s not worried about safety.

“It was actually safer than being in my house,” Walton said with a laugh. “It was so spread out. I was just so comfortable. Everybody did their part. It’s probably safer than going to Walmart.

“And it’s more fun, and they have drinks.”

DiPietro, who is a musician in the Washington, D.C., area, thinks Kline has hit on something in putting on shows safely during the pandemic.

“I know how he’s set it up, and I think it’s brilliant. It’s kind of a new way of perhaps working through COVID over the next year and trying to give musicians some income,” said the lawyer and adjunct professor at American University.

Kline is excited for the fans and for the musicians.

“I had a couple of bands standing on the stage (at an earlier show) watching the crowds coming in and fill the space, and they looked at each other and just started giggling because they hadn’t played with each other since March,” he said. “They were really excited about it, and it was really kind of cool.”

However, he knows that safety has to be the biggest priority this weekend.

“The last thing I want is the Exit Zero Jazz Festival on CNN two weeks later and the festival has caused a cluster (of COVID cases),” Kline said. “We’d be out of business forever, and rightfully so.”