incident at Taste of Fort Collins

On June 14, 2015, Smash Mouth performed at the Taste of Fort Collins food festival in Fort Collins, Colorado . Before the encore, in an incident that lasted about three minutes, singer Steve Harwell became angry, yelled profanities at the audience, and left the stage after bread that had been distributed by the festival was thrown in the air and a few pieces were reportedly thrown onto the stage. Harwell later apologized for the incident in an interview with The Herald-Mail . Event organizer Jason Ornstein explained that he asked Harwell if he wanted him to have the DJs make an announcement instructing the crowd not to throw bread but according to Ornstein, Harwell “stormed on [stage] and took matters into his own hands”. He continued “It wasn’t like anyone was going to be getting hurt by throwing bread up in the air … We just had to laugh at it, because he just really made a fool of himself.” Fort Collins Police Services stated laws prohibiting disorderly conduct, harassment, and “throwing of “missiles”, i.e. objects, apply to event attendees.