Rapper Vanilla Ice will hold an Independence Day concert in Austin, Texas, despite the state implementing new restrictions in the wake of rising cases of the Chinese coronavirus.
The Vanilla Ice concert is set to take place on Friday at the Emerald Point Bar & Grill in Austin, Texas, according to a report by the Austin Chronicle. Last week Texas governor Greg Abbott announced via an emergency executive order that he would shut down bars across the state due to spiking cases of the Wuhan virus — effectively ceasing in-person concerts at bars.
The Emerald Point Bar & Grill, however, is an exception to the new rule, as it is considered a restaurant given that more than half of the establishment’s revenue is obtained from food sales, according to the Austin Chronicle.
Emerald Point, however, will be required to operate at a 50 percent capacity, and will therefore only be selling 2,500 tickets to the event, as the establishment generally has a capacity of between 4,000 to 5,000 people — depending on whether the beach area of the business is open.
Only 84 tickets have been sold as of Wednesday night, according to the Texas Tribune, which added that the concert drew outrage over public health warnings involving the potential further spread of the Chinese virus.
The “Ice Ice Baby” rapper continues to promote the upcoming event on his Instagram account, with footage of packed concerts and captions reminiscing of the nineties — back before the Wuhan coronavirus plunged the U.S. and the world into lockdown.
“I can’t wait to get back to this. The 90s were the best,” said Vanilla Ice in a recent Instagram post. “We didn’t have coronavirus, or cell phones, or computers — we danced, we invented house parties in the 90s. The last of the great decades.”
In another Instagram post on Thursday, the rapper simply posts a video of him singing, “everything is gonna be alright” at a packed event, with no caption included.
“Can you imagine dying for vanilla ice? LOL,” commented on critic on the rapper’s post.
“Consider the health of your fans…just read in the news you plan to hold concert despite this pandemic,” said another.
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, on Parler at @alana, and on Instagram.
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