Ever the trailblazer, Dave Chappelle has proven it’s possible to host a safe outdoor music festival in the middle of a pandemic. As BrooklynVegan points out, Chappelle celebrated Fourth of July by holding a mini music festival in the cornfields of Yellow Springs, Ohio on Saturday night.
As recounted by comedian Cipha Sounds, the six-hour event kicked off with standup comedy from Michelle Wolf, Tiffany Haddish, Michael Che, and Chappelle himself. Questlove then provided the soundtrack for a fireworks display with an all J. Dilla DJ set. The evening concluded with live performances from Erykah Badu, Common, and Talib Kweli, interspersed with appearances from Chappelle and Jon Hamm.
All of the evening’s participants were tested for coronavirus prior to taking the stage. Meanwhile, the 400-person audience wore face masks and practiced social distancing.
Based on video later uploaded to social media, highlights from the evening included Chappelle covering Radiohead’s “Creep” and Eric B. and Rakim’s “Paid in Full” with Kweli and Common. Badu sang Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and caused some on-stage moshing. And in typical white guy fashion, Hamm drunkenly sang his heart out to Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’”.
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According to BrooklynVegan, the event was professionally filmed for distribution at a later date. Until then, you can see the aforementioned fan captured video below.
Last month, Chappelle released a surprise Netflix special called 8:46, which captured an invite-only, socially-distanced gig in Yellow Springs from June 6th.
