Live entertainment can be found in The Villages amid the COVID-19 pandemic but to the dismay of many residents, it’s not at any of the three town squares.

What is likely unknown to many Villagers is that live entertainment is taking place on a daily basis at the food truck area near the Village of Fenney. In fact, one of the food truck vendors, Edna’s Provisions & Vittles, even has a detailed schedule posted on its website of who will be performing at the Edna’s on the Green pavilion, which is located near the Cattail Recreation Center in the Village of Marsh Bend where the food trucks are parked.

The schedules include some notable names in local entertainment, such as the always popular Scooter the DJ, Johnny Wild & The Delights, Dale Stumbo, Joe Hand, Joe Beddia The Godfather and The Villages German Band, to name a few. The acts perform in three-hour blocks at various times, with the majority being from 3-6 p.m.

The live entertainment apparently has been blessed by the powers-that-be in the mega-retirement community, as The Villages website touts Edna’s on the Green as the “newest, coolest place for food and fun.” The site encourages residents to bring their friends for lunch and dinner and “enjoy great food truck fare, live music and special events all day long.”

It’s unclear why the live acts are permitted to perform at the food truck pavilion while entertainment at all three town squares remains on hiatus. Those popular venues were built to handle larger-scale performances but now seem to have taken a backseat to the food truck area as the preferred place for live acts to perform.

It’s also unclear who is paying for the various acts that are performing at Edna’s on the Green. Scooter the DJ typically earns in excess of $1,000 when he performs at the town squares, while Johnny Wild & The Delights will pull in more than $1,500. It would seem unrealistic that food truck vendors who sell relatively cheap meals would be able to foot a daily entertainment bill, which leads to questions about whether or not Villages entertainment dollars are being used to fund the live acts while the town squares remain dormant – an issue that clearly is affecting some businesses. For instance, Katie Belle’s, Demshars and TooJay’s Deli all have closed in Spanish Springs, with each citing the shutdown brought on by the COVID-19 crisis as part of the problem.

Businesses that have opened in each of the town squares were sold a bill of goods that included live entertainment when they signed on the dotted line for high-priced leases, which makes the whole idea of driving Villagers to Edna’s on the Green – 16 miles from Spanish Springs Town Square, 12 miles from Lake Sumter Landing, seven miles from Brownwood and again, not accessible by golf cart – seem completely out of character for a community that has spent decades and millions of dollars on advertisements touting itself as golf-cart friendly.

It also remains unclear if any of the tourism tax money The Villages receives from Sumter County is being used to fund the food truck entertainment venture. The Villages has continued to receive the money for entertainment at Lake Sumter Landing and Brownwood despite it being shut down since March, so some have questioned where and if that money currently is being spent.

Also, despite the ongoing pandemic, Sumter County commissioners voted recently to provide The Villages with another $120,000 to continue funding entertainment at those two town squares. That money doesn’t pay for acts at Spanish Springs Town Square because it’s located in Lake County. And there are plenty of questions marks surrounding the future of entertainment at that troubled square – the oldest of the three – as the Developer is seeking to inundate the area with apartments in the shuttered Katie Belle’s, on the second floors of commercial buildings and at the nearby site of the former Hacienda Hills Country Club.

Meanwhile, many Villagers have been asking the Developer to bring back entertainment at the squares so they can continue to enjoy their favorite acts and the lifestyle they paid dearly for when they became residents. Many have written letters to Villages-News to express their views. Some of those include:

• Jeremiah Riordan, of the Village of Collier, offered a detailed plan of how to reopen the squares amid the pandemic with everything from starting with one square at a time to keeping the outside bar huts closed to reduced seating and dance spaces to constant announcements from entertainers about the importance of social distancing.
• John Field, of the Village of St. Charles, encouraged the reopening of the squares “as soon as possible,’ saying the COVID-19 virus “is no worse than the flu.”
• Karen Capestrain, of the Village of Country Club Hills, also compared the virus to the flu. She said those with strong immune systems will suffer a mild case of the virus and those with underlying health conditions should “stay home.”
• Frank Popeleski, of the Village of Chatham, said it’s time to open all three squares. He said Villagers have been following guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and it’s “time to return to living normal.”
• Dave Dupas, of the Village of Santo Domingo, pointed out that the town squares are open-air venues – experts have said the virus is more likely to spread in enclosed spaces – and social distancing measures could be put in place such as reduced seating and rules prohibiting residents from bringing their own chairs.

As local entertainers also continue to perform at restaurants like the Fenney Grill, Cody’s Original Roadhouse, City Fire, Margarita Republic, Amerikanos and Tierra Del Sol Bar & Grill, to name a few, there have been signs of life at the bar huts in Lake Sumter Landing Market Square. In late August, a crew from Coca-Cola was working in the huts, replacing beverage dispensers.

Plexiglass partitions also had been installed – a measure aimed at separating the bartenders from customers – and the Market Square drink huts were stocked with multiple bottles of liquor.

But The Villages Entertainment Department still hasn’t released any information on reopening the town squares. Instead, it’s website contains an old message that reads: “We know you’re all anxiously awaiting the return of nightly entertainment on the squares. While we’re taking a brief intermission break to ensure the safety of our patrons, please rest assured the bands will take the stage and the drinks will flow again on the squares soon.”