Alexander Hernandez was getting off his shift at City MD when he stumbled upon a huge crowd outside Barclays Center and decided to join in.

“It’s nice to see the world coming back to some semblance of what it used to be,” he says.

Hernandez isn’t the only one feeling hopeful as the music industry’s biggest and brightest make a major comeback at the MTV Video Music Awards.

“It feels so good. I’m very happy and grateful,” says Anna James from Vancouver, Washington. “You see the trajectory, people are feeling OK again. There’s still problems but we’re on a positive course.”

The VMA’s coincide with an exciting time here in the city. New York Fashion Week is in full swing and the MET Gala is back on after it was postponed last year.

Another onlooker, Yarelis Santos, says she’s glad New York is taking vaccinations seriously. “Hopefully we can get past the pandemic and we can keep having big events.”

Last year’s VMA’s were mostly virtual, with more than 6 million people watching from home. A group of NYU freshman say getting back to in person events is inspiring, especially for those hoping to get their foot in the door.

“The dream is to be in there and I was like I gotta go and see it,” says Hannah Heil. “And then maybe a few years I’ll be in there.”

The music industry was among the first to feel the effects of the pandemic with live performances getting cancelled and venues being forced to shutter. 

For Alexander Hernandez, excitement and safety appear to go hand-in-hand.

“At the height of the pandemic, everything was so dead and empty. It was like a ghost town and that’s terrifying,” he says. “Especially a city like New York, which is always alive and moving and just bright. And for a minute that was gone and it was kind of scary. To see everything coming back, the tourism coming back, just the city being alive again, it shows there’s hope.”