JobSiteCare COVID Study: Ubbi Dubbi Festival Had Lower Positivity Rate Than General Population

Ubbi Dubbi
Courtesy of Ubbi Dubbi and Tyler Church – Ubbi Dubbi
Fans get into it at Ubbi Dubbi, the first major (and sanctioned) U.S. festival to take place during the pandemic, with masks required and provided to fans in attendance.

With more and more festival and large-scale concerts claiming to be the “first” to come back following the coronavirus pandemic, what may have been the actual first large-scale festival has reported findings from a COVID-19 study it commissioned saying the April 24-25 Ubbi Dubbi rave in Ennis, Texas, had a positivity rate of 3.8%, according to a sampling of more than 2,000 respondents.

That figure is said to be lower than the new COVID infection rate among those tested in Texas, which is approximately 3.5%-4%.
Disco Donnie Presents founder, veteran electronic music promoter “Disco” Donnie Estopinal, commissioned a third-party survey tracking COVID-19 positivity rates for the two weeks following the festival JobSiteCare, a workforce telemedicine practice.
Out of about 30,000 festival attendees and 900 employees and contractors, 10,000 participants were invited to complete a post-festival survey two weeks after the festival, with 2,039 completing the survey according to the study. Of those, 2001 were attendees and 38 were contractors.  
Of the attendees, 16 tested positive for COVID-19 within two weeks of the festival, while zero employees or contractors tested positive. 
Therefore, the study concludes that “The lack of any difference even approaching significance in either symptom development or COVID positivity regardless of the length of festival attendance suggests that length of exposure in this setting did not increase risk of illness or infection and that the setting itself did not pose a threat to overall public health.” 
It says that while assuming a baseline population immunity between those who are vaccinated against COVID-19 or haven already contracted the virus in recent months, “the prescreening process and safety protocols utilized seem to have reduced the risk of contracting COVID-19 to lower than that found in the general population.”
In return for filling out the survey, attendees were incentivized with a chance to win four VIP backstage tickets to DDP’s Freaky Deaky 2021, which takes place in October at the Houston Raceway in Baytown, Texas.
Following Ubbi Dubbi, Disco Donnie noted the difficulty and stress involved in putting on Ubbi Dubbi, giving a speech after the event: Disco Donnie’s speech continues: “This is the hardest thing I’ve ever done. It wasn’t for me, it was for all of us…. For our mental health…. We needed this, we really needed this. What I want you to do is tell your grandkids that you went to the first festival back. You saved the rave. We fuckin did it.” 
The findings come as Disco Donnie prepares for the Sunset Music Festival happening this weekend at the Raymond James Stadium N. Lot in Tampa, Fla, featuring AC Slater, Destructo, Lizzy Jane, 12th Planet, LSDream and more.  For the event, DDP has set up a vaccination site outside the festival gates for both Saturday and Sunday, with both doses of the Pfizer vaccine as well as the single-dose Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 available, free and with no ID required, partnered with FEMA.
Another major festival takes place in Florida the following weekend, with the Pepsi Gulf Coast Jam June 4-6 topped by Lynyrd Skynyrd, Brad Paisley and Luke Bryan June 4-6 at Frank Brown Park in Panama City Beach, Fla., with as many as 30,000 expected per day.