They are not the sharpest tools in the shell …
Thousands of people came to a concert with the headline of Smash Mouth in South Dakota on Sunday night amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The pop-rockers of the ’90s and their fans at the annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally did not bother to gather during the viral outbreak that killed at least 160,000 Americans.
‘We’re all here together tonight! F – k that COVID shit! Frontman Steve Harwell said on stage, earns cheers from the crowd.
The iconic 10-day festival is expected to attract 250,000 motorcycle enthusiasts, down from about half a million people who attended in previous years, according to USA Today.
Festival-goers did not face many of the social distancing restrictions faced anywhere in the country, the newspaper reported. For example, those who traveled from a virus hotspot before the event were not required to be quarantined.
And although organizers encouraged the use of masks as face masks, they were not required.
Footage from the festival’s Buffalo Chip concert series, where Smash Mouth performed, showed maskless crowds packing together for the stage.
But the band “All Star” maintained that it felt safe and took all precautionary measures possible before the event.
“Everything behind the scenes was rehearsed, etc. The band has their own Covid addendum to their rider as well as the promoter and locally followed up on all our requests,” band manager Robert Hayes told Billboard in an email.
“We have spent endless hours on this incident to make sure it was removed as safely as possible and we are very pleased with the outcome.”
The artists said they had no control over what safety measures attendees followed, but claimed that most of them were on their motorcycles “which eliminated a lot of physical contact between attendees and actually caused a forced social distance.”
“The Smash Mouth organization takes this pandemic very seriously and has taken steps to keep our band, crew and fans as safe as possible during this time,” Hayes said.
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