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Vanilla Ice has cancelled his planned 2,500 capacity show in Austin, Texas this weekend to celebrate 4th July.
The show, announced earlier this week, faced a backlash after a recent spike in coronavirus cases in the state, which has seen state Governor Greg Abbott scale down the reopening of bars and nightclubs.
On Wednesday (July 1), the Austin City Limits festival in the state, set for October, was cancelled due to the new spike in cases, and Ice has now also cancelled his gig, which was set to take place at the Emerald Point Bar & Grill today (July 3).
In a video shared to Twitter last night (July 2) the rapper announced that he was cancelling the gig, saying: “I listen to my fans. I hear all you people out there.
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
“I didn’t know the [coronavirus] numbers were so crazy in Austin. We were hoping it would be a lot better by the Fourth of July because we booked this concert a long time ago… but it turned into a big focal point on me and it’s not about that.
“Anyway, happy Fourth of July and hopefully by New Years this corona crap will have a cure.”
“I can’t wait to get back to this,” the rapper said in an Instagram post originally announcing the gig, which was set to be a ’90s throwback event.
“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 … the last of the great decades.”
As the Austin Chronicle reports, 2,500 tickets were being sold for the event, around half the capacity of the venue.
Despite Governor Abbott’s new plans to scale down the reopening of bars and venues in Texas following the pandemic, the Emerald Point Bar & Grill is allowed to operate at 50% capacity as it is technically a restaurant.
On Sunday, Abbott warned that the spread of coronavirus had taken a “swift and very dangerous turn” in the state.
“Over just the past few weeks, the daily number of cases have gone from an average of about 2,000, to more than 5,000,” he said.
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