This summer, not long after the famed Desert festival, Burning Man was canceled due to COVID-19 restrictions, a SoCal-based events company called "ReUnite Events," formed in the hopes of taking its place -- ReUnite is in no way affiliated with Burning Man.
ReUnite launched their first festival, “ReUnite Fest” on August 25 in California’s Mojave Desert. Almost instantly, images of the event began to surface on social media. Photos and videos of attendees and organizers could be seen blatenly disregarding COVID-19 regulations. No one was wearing masks or social distancing.
Grit Daily and EDM.com reported that the two organizers behind ReUnite Events, Los Angeles-based Rick Silver and Brooke Chenery were able to stage a large- scale gathering, despite restrictions, because they falsely characterized the event as a protest, affiliated with the Black Lives Matter movement.
In recent weeks the ReUnite Instagram account has shared images from their “Black Friday Party,” which took place on Friday, November 27 at an undisclosed location in SoCal. The number of attendees is not known, however, social media posts indicate a large crowd, despite California’s continual record-breaking COVID-19 infections and hospitals hitting their tipping point for ICU bed availability.
KNX reached out to Silver and Chenery for comment, but at the time of publication had not received comment.
As Southern California counties face a “surge on top of a surge," Gov. Gavin Newsom mandated a stay-at-home order for Imperial, Inyo, Los Angeles, Mono, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and Ventura Counties. All are currently restricting gatherings with people outside of one's household. These county's ICU capacities have dropped below the 15% indicator.
On Tuesday, December 8 California broke its record for most COVID-19 deaths in a single day. The state reported 219 deaths and reported 30,851 new daily COVID-19 infections on Wednesday, December 9.