It was 20 years ago today that a driver for Dave Matthews Band dumped an estimated 800 pounds of “brownish-yellow” human waste from the group’s tour bus through a grate on the Kinzie Street Bridge in Chicago onto a sight-seeing boat below.
There was “stunned silence initially. Then sort of this horrible realization as they began to smell themselves as to what happened,” an unlucky passenger on the boat explained to the Chicago Tribune at the time. “It was horrific.” Another sight-seer told the Chicago Sun-Times, “I have a twisted sense of humor, so at the same time that I was crying and throwing up, I was laughing, too, because you can’t make this sh*t up, pardon the pun. All I remember is looking and seeing a bus and then a rust-colored waterfall.” They were under the poop bridge and dreaming of being anywhere else.
The driver was sentenced to 18 months of probation, 150 hours of community service, and a $10,000 fine, while the members of Dave Matthew Band (none of whom can say “I Did It” because they weren’t on the bus at the time) also donated money to environmental causes. The incident has been immortalized through stickers, a plaque, and on the 20th anniversary, a dance party at Chicago’s Hideout venue. The name of the event: “Don’t Drink The Water.”
You can watch a local news report about “Poopgate” above.
10300