Vanilla Ice will no longer be celebrating Independence Day like it’s the ’90s.
The “Ice Ice Baby” rapper had planned to hold the Independence Day Throwback Beach Party on Friday, July 2 in Austin, Texas. Bars are still closed in the region due to COVID-19; however, they seemed to have had found a way around those restrictions.
The Emerald Point Bar & Grill, while technically a restaurant, has a large outdoor concert area, according to the Austin Chronicle. On Thursday, the venue’s owner confirmed to austin 360 that had has withdrawn from the event due to backlash.
“We were being as responsible as humanly possible outside of cancelling the show,” restaurant owner Barrett Brannam assured.
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Ice addressed the outcry in a video posted to Twitter on Thursday.
“I listen to my fans, I hear all you people out there. I didn’t know the numbers were so crazy in Austin, but we were hoping it would be a lot better by Fourth of July because we booked this concert a long time ago,” the rapper explained. “Basically, just want to stay safe.”
“We do take it serious and we want to make sure everyone’s safe. We’re just hoping for a good time,” he added. “It turned into being a big focal point on me and it’s not about that. Happy Fourth of July and hopefully by New Years, this corona crap will have a cure. Come on! Go Ninja go!”
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
VIP Tickets to the event were sold out, at $300 apiece, while general admission tickets cost $25. There were a total of 2,500 tickets available, half the capacity of the venue.
“I can’t wait to get back to this. The ’90s were the best. We didn’t have coronavirus, or cell phones, or computers,” Vanilla Ice wrote on Instagram prior to backing out of the event.
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“We had 5.0‘s, Blockbuster, ‘Beavis and Butthead’, ‘Wayne’s World’, Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan. And ‘Mortal Kombat’ is still better than ‘Fortnight’ but we got out of the house. We danced, we invented house parties in the ’90s. The last of the great decades.”
Color Me Badd will be holding an event on July 4 in the same venue.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott recently ordered all bars to that had recently reopened to close up again after a sharp rise in COVID-19 cases throughout the state.
Last weekend, singer Chase Rice came under fire for performing at a 1,000-person concert. He later apologized and announced the next show would be a drive-in event.
