Smash Mouth: 100+ coronavirus cases confirmed following rally where band played controversial concert

Band sparked controversy by performing to mask-less and non-socially distanced crowd

More than 100 people have been diagnosed with coronavirus in connection to a controversial Smash Mouth concert in August.

On 9 August, the “All Star” band performed to a packed, mask-less crowd at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota, sparking outrage as lead singer Steve Harwell told the audience: “F*** that Covid s***. Now we’re all here together tonight.”

This week, a spokesperson for the North Dakota Department of Health told the Associated Press that 17 cases directly related to the rally had been identified in the state, while at least a further 103 connected cases had been found in the surrounding states.

Additionally, the South Dakota Health Department said that 40 coronavirus cases connected to the annual rally had been diagnosed, including three out of state.

Smash Mouth were one of several acts to play at Sturgis after original performers Willie Nelson, ZZ Top and Lynyrd Skynyrd all withdrew from performing at the 10-day gathering.

Smash Mouth on stage in 2015 (Getty Images)

The Independent has approached Smash Mouth’s reps for comment.

At the time, the band’s manager Robert Hayes said that the event had had a “very strict social distancing and mask policy in place for all workers”.

“We spent endless hours advancing this event to make sure that it was pulled off as safely as possible and we are very happy with the outcome,” he added.

 

 

 

 

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recent fan mail

A post shared by Smashmouth (@smashmouthsmash) on Aug 22, 2020 at 10:33am PDT

The concert caused so much backlash online that Smash Mouth last week shared a picture of some hate mail they had received, including a smashed up CD from a former fan calling the band “selfish” “f***ers”.

“Recent fan mail,” they captioned the Instagram post.