Earlier this month, the Midwest concert promoter Ardent Entertainment started advertising a three-day nu-metal festival that’s set to take place in Ringle, Wisconsin in the middle of July. At some point in the last few days, they started branding it as the Herd Immunity Festival, which is when awareness of the event really started to pick up steam, obviously for the wrong reasons.

At least two scheduled acts have dropped off the bill. The Florida group Nonpoint wrote in response to a tweet from Powerman 5000’s Spider One, “Nonpoint is not playing because of the way the festival is named. We have dropped off.” And the Detroit band Kaleido announced, “We do not want to put our fans at risk in a county with rising infection rates, we thank you for understanding.”

A post on the Facebook page of the Q&Z Expo Center, where the event is set to take place, says that the name of the event has been changed: “The Festival is also not called ‘Herd Immunity’ and the name no longer tied to any of our social media or promotion.” Posters across the event’s official channels have also been reflected to remove the name and update the lineup. Static-X, Dope, a reunited Bobaflex, Blacktop Mojo, Royal Bliss, Flaw, and a few more are still set to play. The once popular post-grunge group Sponge have also been added.

It is now called “3 Day Mini Fest!!!,” I guess.

Local news station WFRV talked to the health department of Marathon County, where the event is scheduled to take place, and they said that they were not aware of the event. “The health department discourages individuals from attending mass gatherings because of the risk of spreading COVID-19,” they wrote in a statement. “If people choose to attend any large public event we encourage them to wear cloth face masks, wash hands, or use hand sanitizer and practice social distancing. The health department does not have the authority to prohibit community events.”

https://twitter.com/nonpoint/status/1275802158793973760