According to The PRP, Smash Mouth, Trapt, Buckcherry, Drowning Pool, Night Ranger, Reverend Horton Heat, Lit, 38 Special, Quiet Riot and Big Skillet turned out to perform at this year’s Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in Sturgis, South Dakota from August 7 through August 16. There were reports that the rally may have been linked to 100+ new cases of COVID-19, however, according to Kelo, Sturgis mass testing results were announced Aug, 27 and concluded that only 4% tested positive for the virus and all cases were asymptomatic.
According to the South Dakota Department of Health, asymptomatic positives statewide have historically fallen in the range of 3% to 7%. Sturgis city manager Daniel Ainslie stated that the 4% confirmed cases is lower than anticipated affirming, “We’re very happy that our mitigation efforts seem to have worked and that there was very little spread into numerous businesses in our count, and there’s very little spread among our employees in whole, which is very good news.”
Also, given the approximate attendance of 462,000 people over the 10-day period, 100 cases appears to be substantially lower than the national daily average.
The pandemic has significantly hurt the music industry’s ability to generate revenue. Addressing complaints about the bands’ decision to play at this year’s event, the manager of Smash Mouth stated that the event “was pulled off as safely as possible.”
Trapt frontman Chris Taylor Brown has taken on more of an aggressive approach towards the complaints, stating, “I seriously don’t care at all… I care as much as what the flu does every year,” and “we’re just fine with showing that there will be zero outbreak from this show and that people who think like you [someone who posted to Brown’s Twitter account] two should never be in charge or decision making again.”
The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally started in 1936 and has been held every year except for 1939 through 1941 due to the rationing of gasoline during those years. The attendance over the past 10 years has been approximately 500,000 per year, so this year’s attendance was slightly lower than average. The event’s largest attendance was in 2015 when the total attendance reached approximately 739,000.
Photo Credit: Boston Lynn Schulz
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