Large gigs and live events have been ruled out in Ireland until at least the end of the month, but that's not the case in the UK.
Some bands and artists are choosing to ignore the common sense rule that large gatherings should be avoided in order to help contain the spread of coronavirus.
One of them is Stereophonics, who chose to go ahead with two huge gigs at Cardiff's Motorpoint Arena (with a capacity of 5,000) over the weekend. This was despite the Six Nations match between Wales and Scotland being cancelled in the same city.
They shared footage of the gig on Facebook, but the comments have been extremely critical of their decision. One person wrote "How many people are going to die due to your stupid tour?". Another called them 'incredibly irresponsible' and quoted their own song lyric, which seemed especially prescient: "It only takes one match to burn a thousand trees”.
Piers Morgan weighed in on the debate on Good Morning Britain this morning, saying ‘This is Stereophonics playing in Cardiff. This is really what you should be doing isn’t it, when the rest of the world’s shutting down. This is what Britain’s doing."
He added that other artists, like Lewis Capaldi, also continued to play large-scale gigs over the weekend - including one to 11,000 people in Aberdeen.
See some of the responses to both gigs below:
I love the Stereophonics, but this is durely the height of fucking irresponsibility considering everything that’s going on no? 🤷♂️🤦♂️ https://t.co/cbsCrQVHif
— Ioan Lewis 🏴 🇪🇺 (@WELSHIJL) March 16, 2020
everyone raging at the Stereophonics but Lewis Capaldi is playing to an audience of 15k in Aberdeen tonight, literally hours before the supposed ban on events of 500+ in Scotland kicks in.
— Liam. (@parcelorogues) March 15, 2020
Imagine literally risking your life to see the Stereophonics https://t.co/g3D1jafEn0
— Alex Dymoke (@AlexDymoke) March 15, 2020
The level of disregard for other people’s lives is astonishing.
I am embarrassed for my country & so disappointed in @stereophonics https://t.co/B8C6edt1xh— Jessica Fishlock MBE (@JessFishlock) March 15, 2020
Across Europe: everyone isolating at home to save lives.
Aberdeen: 11,000 folk pack in to watch Lewis Capaldi..... 🤷♂️ pic.twitter.com/JPkGIL9LhL— StoviesPlz (@Stoviesplz) March 15, 2020
So far, neither have commented on the matter.