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For many folks, last year was a quiet one, spent staying away from excessive friend gatherings, social distancing and generally staying indoors and away from the public. There were barely any shows or concerts of any kind, even the small, socially distanced kind. And yet, there were two events organizations who were relying on the line that the threats to mental health from quarantining far exceeded the very real dangers of COVID-19—which is why they just had to keep throwing lame concerts and parties.
These groups, The Tribe Utah and the aptly named Young/Dumb, were—one could say—dead-set on putting on big events despite mandates across the state against large gatherings. I call those parties lame not just because they endangering the health of all attendees, but of course also the health everyone those attendees came into contact with afterwards—and because the two Utah County-based organizations are well, Utah County-based organizations, so we’re talking about a bunch of sober college kids risking it all to drink Capri Suns and sweat it out on each other to bad EDM. As Halloween 2020 approached, the two orgs began putting out the word that they were putting on a massive, “secret” Halloween party featuring DJs somewhere between Provo and SLC. Back in October, I wrote a disparaging blurb on that event, and afterwards grainy footage of thousands of young and dumb attendees surfaced.
So it’s rather sweet that news dropped this week that the organizers—among them Samuel M. Nii of Orem and Young and Dumb LLC, Eric Little of Sandy, Tanner Valerio of Bluffdale and their company, The Tribe Utah and Branden Estrada of Sandy—will each be fined some $10,000 for their rolls in what Utah County Attorney David Leavitt called, in an interview with the
Salt Lake Tribune, a “superspreader event,” which ultimately took place on the Knolls near Utah Lake. Now, The Tribe has launched a GoFundMe to help cover the costs of their fines, all while the organizers of Young/Dumb are busy planning another “limited entry” party this Satruday, Feb. 13—a permit for which they haven’t even applied. Doubtless there are more fines to come.