As the pandemic has evolved, we've been working to keep pace. Since pandemic conditions vary over time, so do our safety procedures. Bluesy Tuesy and Second Sun Rising share a pandemic response strategy, and are the only event series we know of that vary mask requirements by pandemic conditions. We're still learning as we go; life is a work in progress.
Our Procedures
We have four precaution levels:
We watch the local wastewater numbers and the state hospitalization dashboard and mortality counts. The numbers we use to move between precaution levels change over time. We try to give at least 36 hours notice before an event if there's a precaution level change.
We usually have air filters at our indoor events, and we ventilate as much as the weather and neighbors allow for. If we find out someone may have been contagious at an event, we try to notify attendees that they may have been exposed. Currently notification is by posting a comment on the facebook event where exposure was possible.
The 2023-2024 holiday surge saw nearly twice as much covid in the environment but far fewer hospitalizations and fatalities compared to 2022-2023. This evolution causes us to adjust our thresholds for mask requirements. We expected a similar holiday surge in 2024-2025, but it never came; that holiday season was around 60% of covid levels seen the year before.
As of October, 2025 so far has been mild overall compared to previous years, with lower levels of covid in sewage, fatalities, and hospitalizations. We've stayed at Masks Optional (lowest precaution level). We continue to check public health numbers regularly.
Results to Date
| Year | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 as of Oct | total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| someone possibly contagious reports | 5 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 12 |
| someone positive afterwards, probable transmission |
1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| someone reported being positive afterwards, possible transmission |
0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
We restarted dance events in March of 2022 with both masking required and vaccination required. From March thru December, Bluesy Tuesy and Second Sun Rising together held 36 events and checked just over 400 individuals. A combined total of 3 medical exemptions were made (one unvaxxed, two unboosted).
In the Summer of 2022, June thru August, we ran several outdoor events which did not have controlled access; since we were out in public, anyone could walk up and join in, and we had a host try to spot people, ask for a donation, and check them in. This resulted in an additional two unboosted dancers and three that we have names for but no vaccination data.
In 2022, we had five reports of people who were probably positive and possibly contagious during events in 2022 (two at Double Up in April, one at Antumbra in May, two at two different Bluesy Tuesys in December). At least two attendees of September 2022's Second Sun Rising reported that the state contact tracing app alerted them to being exposed, and one subsequently had covid, so we have one known possible transmission occuring at our events.
In March 2023, Bluesy Tuesy and Second Sun Rising dropped vaccination requirements. At that point we had held 47 events since restarting and checked over 500 individuals. Due to various issues there were 57 people we did not obtain a contact tracing email address for and 16 whose vaccination status we didn't have recorded. By November 2023, we'd had 20 months of pandemic-era dancing and only one known probable transmission (where we know we had someone positive at the event, and someone after the event became positive).
In 2023 overall, we had three reports of people who were positive at dances, one in February and one in November, one in December, and no indications of any transmission happening at any of our events.
In April 2024, we rolled in a three-tier precaution system and changed over to mask optional dances. In July, as covid numbers increased, we realized we needed a "masks recommended" precaution level, and went to that level for the July 14 and 16 events.
In 2024 overall, we had four reports of people possibly contagious at dances, two in January (2nd, 16th) and two in July (5th, 16th). The person who attended Jan 16 tested positive on Jan 18, it is possible either that they were contagious at the event or that they caught covid at the event. By July 16 2024, we'd held 135 pandemic-era events, and had at least 950 different people dance with us.
As of October 2025, we've had no reports of anyone being possibly contagious at an event since July of 2024, no known possible transmissions since January of 2024, and no probable transmissions since 2022.
Overall, we feel fairly proud of our level of response and results, both from our volunteers and our community. It's been a lot of work. For about two years we had people telling us we were not being safe enough, and people telling us we were being too cautious or that they would not come to a masked event, often both in the same week. It is quite refreshing that that's done with at least for now.
Footnote: For those not familiar with the local scene, Antumbra is a joint weekend put on by Second Sun Rising and Eclipse in May 2023, Sep and Dec 2024, and June 2025, and Double Up was a joint evening put on in April 2022 by Bluesy Tuesy and JP Jitterbugs. We hope to do more of these in the future.