Defiant of city rules, hundreds of partiers fill a Waianae concert featuring popular rapper

HONOLULU, Hawaii (HawaiiNewsNow) - Despite state and city rules forbidding concerts, hundreds of mask-less partiers attended an event in Waianae over the weekend, raising health and safety concerns.

In a Quonset hut on Waianae Valley Road Saturday night an estimated 500 people jammed to the music of Grammy-nominated rapper Swae Lee.

Josh Holly, who goes by Josh VFX, told Hawaii News Now the event was organized by YBC Promotions. He said they took people’s temperature at the door.

Video shows no social distancing and hardly any masks being worn.

“It was a couple people in there that wasn’t wearing a mask, so we rock stars we want people to see our face, see us lit and then they want to do whatever we do,” said Holly. “You feel me? We just all having a good time vibing like I don’t feel like it was really nothing like a safety hazard.”

But both the state and city forbid concerts right now. Social gatherings are capped at 10 people.

“Honestly, I have no words,” said Kapu Breakers Co-Founder Angela Keen. “As a COVID survivor, it makes me sick to my stomach that these people don’t care about the people of Hawaii.”

“What they’ve done is putting our community, our Waianae community in jeopardy you know,” added a concerned neighbor.

Keen said Kapu Breakers have been following social media accounts promoting the concert, which she believes could be a possible super spreader event -- not to mention a hub for illegal activity.

“There were drugs and all kinds of things involved,” said Keen. “And our military, we trust them, you know, so we kept following them and realize that they would have this concert this last weekend and continue to follow them.”

One of the members of Kapu Breakers reported the event to police, but Keen said they didn’t believe him.

“And from there, they decided to send an officer to his home to meet with him, and he did meet with the officer and told them what was going on,” said Keen.

The concerned neighbor said officers did check out the event.

“There was like five, six police cars and they’re like pulling, guys [over], there’s a whole bunch of cars coming down,” said the concerned neighbor.

Hawaii News Now repeatedly asked HPD if officers took any actions that night, but a spokesperson only told us they shut down a gathering the weekend before last.

Holly said the group is planning more parties in the coming weeks.

“We tired of being stuck in the house and have to follow all these procedures and having to wait for things to reach different tiers,” said Holly. “We were like man we young, we wild, we just want to go out and have fun so that’s what kind of we did.”

Holly also told us the event organizers got a permit, but he wasn’t sure who it was from.

The city says it wasn’t from them.

Hawaii News Now reached out to YBC promotions but have not heard a response yet.

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