Chase Rice and Chris Janson are in hot water after performing shows this past weekend, and while Chris headlined an entire festival in Idaho, Chase seems to be taking the brunt of the criticism.
Especially from other artists.
Kelsea Ballerini called him “selfish,” Mickey Guyton said she was “livid,” and even Maren Morris chimed in with a “no masks” mind blown comment which earned a block from Chris Janson (he later called it a mistake).
But out of all the comments, it was fellow artist Jason Isbell that came down the hardest on them with his tweet challenging the term “country star.” And he didn’t name names, but he’s obviously referring to the media’s characterization of Chase and Chris with the tweet, and I would imagine some of the other guests of the Hwy 30 Music Fest as well.
He further added that he wished everybody could be performing right now.
The venue that Chase performed at claimed that all local requirements were followed, with the venue’s capacity of 10,000 being reduced by more than 50% to 4,000 for Chase’s show and less than 1,000 tickets being sold in total.
They also told TMZ that guests were given temperature checks before entering the venue, and hand sanitizer was passed out at the entrance. However, the venue admits that they were “unable to further enforce physical distancing” that was recommended by signage, and that they are exploring other options for future shows that include drive-in concerts, dividers, or just cancelling future concerts altogether.
As far as Janson goes, the festival organizers also released a statement to KMTV:
“Due to everything that has been going on, we made a lot of changes, and we were asked are you going to cancel, are you going to cancel, and our answer to that is no we are not, we are going to hold tight, somebody needs to be that light at the end of the tunnel,” said spokesperson Gordy Schroeder. “The fair board, our county commissioners, all the way up to the powers that be at the state, we’ve all been working together, and we’ve been following every rule and regulations, it all worked out and we’re ready to go.”
Here’s footage from Janson’s performance this past weekend.
As you can see, it was not very socially distanced and definitely not very many masks in the crowd.
It’s also worth a mention that Koe Wetzel, Kody West and others pulled out of the festival.
