Vanilla Ice has been humbled. The ’90s rapper has been forced to postpone his scheduled Fourth of July concert after copping backlash about health concerns amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The Independence Day Throwback Beach Party was set to take place on July 4th at Emerald Point Bar & Grill. The previous week Texas Gov. Greg Abbot closed bars and clubs in an effort to flatten the curve after Austin saw a spike in coronavirus cases and hospitalizations — recording a daily high of 8,076 new cases.
However, The Independence Day hoedown was set to go forth thanks to a legal loophole. The Emerald Point Bar & Grill is technically a restaurant — at least 51% of the venue’s sales are attributed to food, so they were able to stay open at 50% capacity. In addition to the restaurant, the venue hosts a large outdoor concert space with a capacity of 5,000 — allowing Ice and promoters to flog 2,500 tickets.
The rapper has listened to the concerns of the people and has decided to postpone the concert, revealing that he didn’t understand the severity of the coronavirus spike.
“Due to the increase in COVID-19 numbers in Austin we’re gonna move the concert to a better date,” Vanilla Ice tweeted. “We were hoping for better Coronavirus numbers by July but Unfortunately the numbers have increased quite a bit so for the safety and health of everyone we’re going to stay home.”
Due to the increase in COVID-19 numbers in Austin we’re gonna move the concert to a better date. We were hoping for better Coronavirus numbers by July but Unfortunately the numbers have increased quite a bit so for the safety and health of everyone we’re going to stay home. pic.twitter.com/MWWfNWf3zd
— Vanilla Ice (@vanillaice) July 2, 2020
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Barrett Brannam, the venue owner, revealed that Vanilla Ice was concerned about the health of his fans and himself, and didn’t know when the rescheduled concert would take place.
“Hard to say. Could be later this summer or not until next summer. We don’t now how long this virus will be around,” Brannam revealed.
Only 84 tickets had been sold before the online ticket merchant suspended all sales.
Don’t worry Vanilla, once a cure is found and the live music industry can begin healing, we’re sure that music fans from all corners of the globe will flock to see you in all your infinite, eternal glory.