Yes, it is true. Yesterday Illinois officially moved into “phase 4” of our our re-opening plan, the fourth out of five stages of re-opening, with the next phase not coming until there is a vaccine or reliable treatment for COVID-19. We’ve been getting some questions as far as what this phase means for us or if this means we can start having shows yet. We’ll just address some of those questions and give a little update here.

• Our physical was already able to open at phase 3, so with phase 4 we will remain open. You can expect an increase of our store hours announced at some point early next month. We will also likely announce an increase in the number of people we will allow at once in the store, which currently is at 4. Face masks are still strongly recommended if not required.
• In phase 4 gatherings of up to 50 people are permitted. Technically this does mean we could get away with having shows inside our venue space to some extent if we limited the amount of attendees, but we are not ready to do this or even plan for it yet.
• Instead of thinking about shows right now, we are more planning for the debut of the Dumb Arcade. We are not setting an opening date for this because we do not want a rush of people coming all at once, but you can expect the arcade to open at some point next month. When we announce the arcade’s debut we will also go over what precautions we will be taking to keep everyone safe.

In addition to all of this, parking downtown continues to be free throughout the month of July! You don’t need to put any money in those meters!

When do you think shows should return? Join the discussion on our forum.