Visitors pay up to $ 25,000 in admission. One of the most powerful bosses on Wall Street is standing at the mixer. But the first big gig since the beginning of the corona pandemic will probably not mark the beginning of the return of party life to the New York city of Southampton.
DJ D-Sol got enthusiastic after the concert: "Standing up there and watching the sunset, looking out over the huge field of cars and people on their cars was wonderful," he said enthusiastically the following day in an interview . Attention had already been high in advance for the weekend concert: the fact that the stage name Gold Sol Sachs, David Solomon, was behind the stage name D-Sol, which opened the event with a one-hour DJ set, was just one of the details that made headlines. Above all, it was one of the first major concerts in months in New York State, which was particularly hard hit by the corona pandemic.
The approximately 2,000 guests had paid up to $ 25,000 for each marked area for their car on the large meadow in Southampton, a city known for its many super-rich residents and correspondingly extravagant parties. Under corona conditions, personal toilets for individual visitors were part of the luxury for the public, who largely came from the New York financial sector.
For the organizing agencies and the companies involved – for example for technology, security and cleaning – who had had practically no sales for months, the concert should also be a kind of test run: How can large events be held safely during Corona times? It is about "finding ways to protect each other and still enjoy life," as D-Sol alias bank boss Solomon put it.
In spite of the luxurious framework conditions, this test obviously went wrong. Videos show how several hundred visitors gather and dance in front of the stage and in larger groups between the cars. Distance rules are ignored by many of them, as are loudspeaker requests to wear masks.
The governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, was outraged. "We have no tolerance for illegal and reckless public health threats," he tweeted, announcing an investigation by the health agency. The chief said that the city of Southampton had approved and "thought that this would be legal and not an obvious health hazard" and the city of Southampton had approved such an event.
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