Dear Mayor Breed,

We are people who either work in, or are supporters of, the Bay Area’s performing arts industry. We are writing to you to ask that your administration and the San Francisco Department of Public Health engages with representatives of our community to safely reopen live outdoor performing arts (including music concerts, dance and theatre performances) in San Francisco.

As you know, the arts are protected as a fundamental right under the First Amendment of the US Constitution. As such, the arts are legally mandated in law to be given equal consideration with similar activities such as religious worship and protest.

Thank you for acquiescing to the San Francisco International Arts Festival's recent permit request for a brief prototype series to go ahead. The program successfully demonstrated that, if both organizers and participants adhere to clear health and safety rules, performing arts events can be staged with minimal risk to the public during the corona-virus pandemic.

As such we ask that you prioritize working with our industry to develop such guidelines that will allow the performing arts to be a safe, permitted activity as part of San Francisco’s recovery strategy.