Collin Raye is making a statement, and a big one, with his upcoming concert. The country music icon is planning a free show in Utah on May 30, 2020. The event, which will take place at Barnes Park in Kaysville, Utah, is Collin’s way of politely pushing back at the ongoing restrictions due to COVID-19 –– and hopes he inspires others to do the same.
“Hopefully, this concert will inspire similar events in other states around the country as we try to unify and start pushing back against the effects of this pandemic,” Collin said in a statement. “We will be utilizing the recommended sensible safety precautions, and I’m confident it will be a huge success for small businesses, and hopefully, the country at large.”
Attendees are encouraged to maintain proper social distancing, and wear protective masks. Local businesses will also be on hand to both interact with concert attendees and set up booths to sell their goods and services.
The concert is being organized by the Utah Business Revival, whose goal is to promote safe social gatherings again.
“If we can all stand in line waiting for toilet paper, we can certainly all shop safely in an open air market and enjoy a country music legend, Collin Raye,” said Utah Business Revival event organizer Eric Moutsos.
The concert is believed to be one of the first live music gatherings in the United States following the restrictions put in place due to the coronavirus pandemic. Collin has several shows on the calendar for the remainder of 2020. Find tour updates by visiting his website.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Absolute Publicity
Hi I’m a local tooele business owner and it is a joke that they (Utah Business Revival) claim to promote safe social gatherings again when they caught our county officials off guard and didn’t secure a permit with the health department before announcing this event. It’s against our county regulations so they don’t care about our local tooele small business, which is already being negatively affected by this concert.
1. Eric Moutsos, the person organizing this event, lacks character. He organized and announced the event without securing any permits. He’s coming from another county, ignoring our laws, putting our local communities at risk, and risking MY and MY friends’ local Tooele businesses to have to close their shops again were there to be an outbreak.
This would especially hurt little shops with regular hours and businesses who operate above board.
2. Moutsos is also a known homophobe. As a queer person, I am taking note of anyone I see publicly endorsing him or his rabble rousing and they are losing my trust and endorsement. He was a police officer who left the force because he refused his assignment to ride a motorcycle at the front of a pride parade and compared himself to an african-american riding in front of a KKK parade. Yikes.
3. If there is an outbreak in our county with one hospital, it is not Moutsos who will suffer the consequences. It is our local businesses. This whole concert is a political gain for him. He doesn’t give a shit about people who live and work in Tooele.
4. As a local Tooele business owner I am disgusted when I see people claiming that us setting up a free booth at a one time below board event, is going to save our business. We aren’t here to be an accessory to your ill-thought out event so you can come and gawk at our wares and go back to shopping at walmart the next day. We are here today. You can buy from us TODAY. We don’t stop doing business cause we aren’t at a booth at an idiotic concert. We just opened our doors to the public with safety measures in place, if we are not careful we will have to close them again.