Vanilla Ice Cancels Texas Concert After Backlash

Vanilla Ice

Vanilla Ice Cancels Texas Concert After Backlash

Update #2 (July 3rd): Vanilla Ice has axed his controversial concert after receiving overwhelming criticism amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The annual Independence Day Throwback Beach Party was supposed to take place on the Lake Travis reservoir, which is near Austin, TX.

He announced his decision in a video and said,

“I didn’t know the numbers were so crazy in Austin. We were just hoping for a good time, Fourth of July weekend, but it turned into being a focal point on me and it’s not about that. Anyway, happy Fourth of July, and hopefully by New Year’s this corona crap will have a cure!”

Travis County, which includes Austin, saw a 700% jump in positive coronavirus from June 1, which had 88 new cases that day, to Wednesday (July 1), which had 597 new cases in a day.

Original Story: ‘Ice Ice Baby’ rapper Vanilla Ice announced that he will be having a 4th of July party in Austin, Texas where coronavirus cases are currently increasing.

The concert that he is hosting is called the Independence Day Throwback Beach Party and the event has found a unique way to hold the concert, without violating the CDC guidelines for the COVID-19 pandemic.

The venue, Emerald Point Bar & Grill, is technically a restaurant even though it has an outdoor general admission concert space with a large capacity. Therefore, fans don’t have to adhere to the current recommended coronavirus guidelines that highly suggests that people should not congregate in large crowds and should social distance.

Vanilla Ice, who seemed pretty excited about the upcoming concert, wrote the following to his over 440k followers,

“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 … 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 #IMissThenineties”

In terms of the current COVID-19 pandemic in Texas, the governor Greg Abbott ordered that all bars in Texas to close starting from last week Friday due to the recent surge in cases and hospitalizations from the pandemic. Texas has announced 8,076 new cases which is now a record daily high. In recent weeks tests increasingly been in short supply. The positivity rate for tests in the Austin area, where the Vanilla Ice concert is supposed to take place, is now around 28 percent.

What are your thoughts on Vanilla Ice having his concert despite the coronavirus cases surging in Texas? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below.