Vanilla Ice comes to his senses and cancels a big Texas concert
Texas, which is experiencing a huge surge in COVID-19 cases, now has a mandatory mask order in place for public spaces issued by Governor Greg Abbott. This is bad news for Vanilla Ice, who planned to hold a 90s-themed concert for about 2,500 people at a venue called Emerald Point Bar & Grill just outside of Austin.
The gig, which had been informally promoted as a carefree return to the good ol’ 90s, seemed to completely ignore the need for physical distancing. And people seemed willing to go along with the fantasy. All the $300 VIP tickets available were sold out in advance.
A tweet from Ice read “I take the coronavirus serious. But we can’t live in a bubble. I think at this point we all understand the severity of it. (P)ractice social distancing and wear a mask. This is an outside venue, Fourth of July on the lake with fireworks. Plenty of room for distancing.”
That was followed by a posting of a video featuring a tightly-packed crowd. ”I can’t wait to get back to this. The ’90s were the best. We didn’t have coronavirus, or cell phones, or computers. We had 5.0‘s, Blockbuster, Beavis and Butthead, Wayne’s World, Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan. And Mortal Kombat is still better than Fortnight but we got out of the house, We danced, we invented house parties in the ’90s. The last of the great decades.”
But then Ice came to his senses, saying “I didn’t know the numbers were so crazy in Austin.” Er, do you not follow the news?
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
The same bar was supposed to host a gig by Color Me Badd on Saturday. It’s been canceled, too. Good.