The sixth annual Ruido Fest hosted 30,000 ticketed fans over the weekend (Aug. 20-22) in Chicago, and five of those fans received a vaccine against COVID-19, Billboard can confirm.
To help slow the transmission of the coronavirus, local wellness center Envision was on site to provide vaccinations. The inoculation site offered either Pfizer or Moderna shots on Friday from 2 to 6 p.m.; those who received their first vaccine at the fest were to schedule their second doses elsewhere.
Additionally, healthcare startup Curative completed 782 total COVID-19 tests at their testing site, according to the company. The festival promoted the vaccine and testing opportunities on social media days before the event kicked off and after announcing earlier this month that in order to attend Ruido Fest, “a full COVID-19 vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test will be required,” the website read.
Fully vaccinated festivalgoers had to show a physical, photo or digital copy of their vaccine card/record. For unvaccinated fans, a test taken within 72 hours of the start of the event was accepted. The PCR tests offered by Curative produced results in 15 minutes. And, although encouraged to wear masks, most festivalgoers went mask-less once they entered the outdoor festival.
Chicago’s indoor mask mandate for all individuals 2 years and older officially returned Aug. 20 coinciding with Ruido Fest day 1, as COVID-19 cases are on the rise again, with the average daily number of new cases up to 450 per day.
The three-day outdoor event, which returned this year after taking 2020 off due to the pandemic, was held at Chicago’s Union Park with bands Caifanes, Panteón Rococó and Café Tacvba as headliners.
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