Despite repeated warnings from the government to social distance and to pay attention to safety precautions amid the spike in Covid-19 cases, the fans of popular Cape Town-based live-electronic band GoodLuck partied as though lockdown was a thing of the past.
In a video that has since gone viral on social media, people can be seen singing along, dancing, cheering, and raising their glasses and chairs with no masks and social distancing in place.
This comes after the band performed at an event that was hosted and run by the La Parada Spanish-inspired tapas restaurant and bar in Constantia Nek, Cape Town.
The award-winning group took to Facebook on Monday to state an apology.
The statement read: “Last night we performed at an event that was hosted and run by La Parada, a venue in Cape Town.
“Since then a video has been circulating of an unmasked crowd dancing to our music with Jules singing on a table and we would like to unreservedly apologise for how it looked and the part that we had to play in that situation.
“We would like the opportunity to offer a little more context to what unfolded prior to this video.
“This was a limited, seated outdoor event that was adhering to the regulations and was organised by the venue La Parada.
“(A total of) 155 seated tickets were sold to this event, temperatures were checked at the door and everyone was sanitised before entering, and customers were instructed by the venue to wear masks at all times except while eating and drinking.”
The statement continued:
- We have been informed that customers were supposed to have stayed at the tables and not move around throughout the event. These rules were largely adhered to until the last 3 minutes (the final song) of our show where during this song everyone got very excited and started to jump around between the tables as seen in the video. We should have stopped the music and instructed everyone to go back to their tables but we were right at the end of the show mid-song, but the moment got away from us. For this, we do sincerely apologise.
- We have had a call with the venue and they will be issuing a statement about their event during the day. They have apologised to us for letting their guard down on security in that short space of time when the protocol was broken.
- We will work to ensure that an incident like this doesn't happen again as a promise from us.
- Live music has been an extremely challenging space to navigate over the last few months. We have tried our best to keep the live performance industry alive while remaining committed to the safety of our fans and the public.
- With this in mind, we have decided to cancel our Get Lucky Summer concerts that were due to take place this December. We will be issuing an official announcement tomorrow on the process for ticket refunds. Once again we truly feel sorry for the upset and anguish that has been caused. It was never our intention.
We would like to offer our sincerest apology to all of our fans, friends and family. We had nothing but the best of intentions going into Sunday's performance & we are bitterly disappointed that things got out of control for even 1 minute. Its a massive reminder to stay vigilant. pic.twitter.com/BX94v0Mev0
— GoodLuck (@Goodlucklive) December 14, 2020
According to lockdown level 1 regulations, social gatherings are permitted, as long as the number of people does not exceed 50% of the normal capacity of a venue, up to a maximum of 250 people for indoor gatherings and 500 people for outdoor gatherings.
The regulations further state that all health protocols must be observed including social distancing measures.
This comes after several videos have gone viral with patrons at entertainment venues not following Covid-19 regulations.
La Parada has yet to issue a statement at the time of publishing.