Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon left the trading floor behind to hit the turntable in the Hamptons on Saturday, dropping some beats as the opening act for the Chainsmokers.
The live, outdoor musical event was a rarity in an age of social distancing, with thousands of attendees flocking to the Nova's Ark Project and Sculpture Garden in Water Mill, New York, to see EDM group the Chainsmokers perform.
The event was conducted in partnership with Bumble, with the goal of raising money for No Kid Hungry, Southampton Fresh Air Home, and Children's Medical Fund of New York.
Read more: The new CEO of Goldman Sachs says people used to 'cower in a corner' when he got in the elevator — until they learned he's a DJ on the side
There were a limited number of spots available for people to pull their cars into lots that were 20 feet by 20 feet, supposedly enough to guarantee that attendees would keep their distance from one another while observing the live musical event. Some spots fetched as much as $25,000.
But the event quickly sparked sharp criticism on social media, as critics pointed to videos showing what appeared to be a crowd of thousands gathered in close proximity to one another, flouting social distancing guidelines.
One video, which has garnered as many as three million views on Twitter, showed a massive crowd of spectators seemingly gathered in close contact with one another.
—Icculus The Brave (@FirenzeMike) July 26, 2020
Jason Gilbert, a producer at "The Daily Show" with Trevor Noah, wrote on his Twitter page that "if you got COVID from a Chainsmokers concert in the Hamptons you shouldn't get to take up a hospital bed. That's on you."
And yet another social media user expressed fear that such a gathering could lead to an even greater outbreak of the virus in New York.
"The spread may come back to NYC if those people from the Hamptons attended that big concert," wrote @overstreet_anne.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said in a tweet Monday night that he had seen videos from the concert and was "appalled." The Department of Health will conduct an investigation into the event, he said.
Not his first gig: Solomon is a veteran DJ
For Solomon, Saturday's event offered the chance to flex his DJ skills and step out of his Wall Street heavy hitter persona and into a very different character: DJ D-Sol, his club-ready alter ego.
Bloomberg reported on Monday that D-Sol performed an hour long set before the Chainsmokers took to the stage.
Solomon "put his hands up in the air, playing electronic dance beat takes on popular songs," Bloomberg wrote. "Giant plumes of smoke went up in front of the stage as the sky turned pink and orange."
Business Insider previously reported that Solomon, who took over as Goldman's CEO in 2018, has had a budding talent for spinning for several years.
What's more, he's said, it softened his image in front of employees at Goldman: "When people started seeing I had this hobby and was into music, a 24-year-old analyst would say, 'Hey, David, I saw your post on this and I heard your track,'" Solomon said in 2018.
In a statement to Business Insider on Tuesday, a spokesperson for Goldman Sachs said that "David agreed to participate in an event for charity in which the organizers worked closely with the local government and put strict health protocols in place."
"He performed early and left before the show ended. The vast majority of the audience appeared to follow the rules, but he's troubled that some violated them and put themselves and others at risk," the spokesperson said.
In an age of social distancing, not everyone harmonized with the performance
In a statement to Business Insider on Monday, the event organizers, In The Know Experiences and Invisible Noise, said that they followed social-distancing guidelines:
"The Safe & Sound drive-in concert fundraiser followed the guidelines created by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and made efforts to ensure New York's social distancing guidelines were properly maintained throughout the event."
Leading up to the event, organizers pointed to a number of efforts they made to limit the spread of the coronavirus, noting that they instructed guests to "self-monitor their temperature daily for two weeks leading up to the event," and asked attendees to disclose if they had tested positive with COVID-19 or been in contact with someone who had.
Face masks were provided to guests as they arrived and their temperatures were taken, the organizers added, noting that "security guards regularly patrolled the area to encourage mask wearing and promote social distancing guidelines."
"The event organizers followed all proper and current protocol," they said.
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