Carnival of Soul

CAPE MAY — Square boxes 6-by-6 feet in size were spray painted all over the grounds of the Emlen Physick Estate on Sunday. Two stages were set up where festivalgoers could watch live jazz, but they had to put their chairs in the square boxes — a safe distance from others.

The estate was one of four venues for the annual Exit Zero Jazz Festival, a twice-annual festival held since 2012 that was reimagined this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The festival is usually held at about 10 indoor venues around the city, but COVID-19 changed all of that.

“We launched two music series (outside) in mid-July just to see if we could pull them off,” said Michael Kline, the festival’s executive producer and artistic director. “It was received really well by everyone. Musicians loved it. The patrons loved it. Once we realized that people were receptive to it … we totally reimagined the festival and ramped up the protocols that we had already been using since July.”

Safety protocols were in place for patrons, musicians and crew. Patrons received temperature checks when entering the grounds and had to wear masks when not sitting in their box.

Plexiglass was on stage to separate band members and UV blacklights were used to sanitize the stages after every use.

Attendance was also scaled back due to the pandemic. The festival usually brings out more than 3,500 people, Kline said. This year’s festival brought out 400 to 500 people a day.

Judi Wexler, a Philadelphia and Florida resident, has been coming to the jazz festival for about six years.

“I love the music. I love the format of Cape May jazz,” she said.

“They have the concerts and then you can go to the clubs, in a previous life,” she joked, referring to not being able to go to indoor music venues due to the pandemic.

She was happy the event wasn’t canceled and instead brought outside so festivalgoers could still have the chance to listen to live music.

“I haven’t done that for five or six months,” she said.

Gerald Veasley, a bassist from Philadelphia, has played the festival before and also played at the summer music series this past summer.

“That show was the first time I had played in six months,” he said. “It felt amazing, cathartic. It was really like a release.”

His band played Sunday afternoon. He couldn’t have been more excited.

“This is a world-class festival,” he said. “Many festivals now are doing everything virtual, so to have a festival that’s live and people can see you and feel the energy is awesome.”

And in the new normal of mask wearing and social distancing, Veasley said that every day is Saturday.

“There’s really no markers now with times and days,” he said. “That feels weird. But to be able to play again as a musician, this is our highest sense of normalcy — just to be able to perform.”

But the weirdest part for him as a musician is not being able to hug fellow musicians or even fans.

“It’s not huggable times right now, but I hope we get back there,” he said.

Going forward, Kline is open to having the festival, held twice a year, outside.

“I love the idea of an outdoor festival,” he said. “It gives us a chance to really have a full festival experience with the vendors. It gives it that festival feeling.”

While many festivals were canceled this year due to the pandemic, he was happy to pull out a safe one, adding that the response from both attendees and musicians has been well received.

“They needed this,” he said. “They need the arts, you need music in your life. People are going to take this, and they’re going to go home and it’s going to get them through the next three months.”

And for the first outside festival, it was a perfect fall day. According to the National Weather Service, it was 65 degrees and mostly sunny.

“I paid good money for that,” Kline said jokingly.