Chase Rice and Chris Jansen sparked backlash after holding concerts on Saturday (June 27) amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Many Twitter users also raised concerns with Tennessee’s marked increase in cases over recent weeks. The largest single-day spike – 1,410 confirmed cases – was reported on Friday (June 26), the day before the concert. There’s been over 40,000 reported coronavirus cases in Tennessee to date, which has resulted in more than 580 deaths.
Chase shared video footage of a concert he played in east Tennessee on his Instagram Story. The video, which appeared to be taken from the stage, shows a large crowd of cheering fans in front of the stage.
Kelsea Ballerini retweeted the clip, which was captured by a fan, writing, “Imagine being selfish enough to put thousands of people’s health at risk, not to mention the potential ripple effect, and play a NORMAL country concert right now.”
“@ChaseRiceMusic, We all want (and need) to tour,” she added. “We just care about our fans and their families enough to wait. 🤷🏼♀️.”
Indie folk rock band The Mountain Goats also took to the platform to call out the artists, the venues, and fans in attendance, tweeting, “The people in this audience, along with the presenters of this show, are assuring that conscientious musicians won’t be able to work their jobs for a while, and that conscientious audiences won’t be able to see shows for the foreseeable, and to be blunt, that f–king sucks.”
Maren Morris retweeted The Mountain Goats’ post without any commentaries, and it seemed to have prompted a reaction from Chris.
“ummmmmm what did I DO?! 😂😂😂” Maren wrote, sharing a screenshot showing that she has been blocked by Chris on Twitter.
Chris, who also shared footages from his Saturday concert at Hwy 30 Fest in Filer, Idaho on social media, deleted them the next day.
Chase’s concert was held in the Historic Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary in Petros, Tennessee. The venue has since released a statement.
“All local requirements were abided by for the recent concert, and numerous precautions were taken,” the statement said.
“We drastically reduced our maximum venue capacity of 10,000 to 4,000 maximum capacity (lower than the state’s advisement of 50%) with less than 1,000 in attendance Saturday night providing ample space in the outdoor lawn area for fans to spread out to their own comfort level,” the statement continued. “All guests were given temperature checks prior to entering the venue and free hand sanitizer was provided to everyone at entry. All vendors and staff were advised to wear masks and gloves when interacting with guests, and bandanas were available for purchase on-site.”
“We were unable to further enforce the physical distancing recommended in the signage posted across the property and are looking into future alternative scenarios that further protect the attendees, artists and their crews and our employees,” the venue concluded. “We are reevaluating the series from the top to bottom — from implementing further safety measures, to adding stanchions, to converting the space to drive-in style concerts, to postponing shows.”
So far, Chase’s rep had no comment and Chris’ rep is yet to reply to a request for comment.
