The Dave Matthews Band poop bus incident in Chicago from 20 years ago, explained

A look back at the incident that's having its 20th anniversary.

Welcome to FTW Explains, a guide to catching up on and better understanding stuff going on in the world. Have you seen some stuff about Dave Matthews Band and, uh, poop? And you’re very confused about that whole thing? Don’t worry. We’re here to help.

That’s right. We’re celebrating an anniversary this week that has everyone remembering a very awful thing that happened 20 years ago. It involved the bus that belonged to the Dave Matthews Band tour and … a really disgusting thing that happened in Chicago on a bridge.

We’ll break it down for you and help you understand what this is.

Wait, what’s the Dave Matthews Band poop bus incident?

The year was 2004. It was August 8. Dave Matthews Band was on tour and the bus was going over the Kinzie Street Bridge when the driver decided to dump the bus’s waste over the side and into the Chicago River.

Ew. That’s so gross.

Wait. It gets worse. A lot worse.

It gets worse than dumping sewage into the Chicago River?

Sure does. Because a boat with more than 100 people on it just happened to be under where the bus released the sewage.

WHAT? NOOOOOO!

Oh yes. This was, per NBC Chicago, “800 pounds of human waste” dumped.

What happened next? Was there a lawsuit? An arrest

From that NBC Chicago story:

The band’s bus driver eventually admitted to the dumping and was prosecuted. Though the musicians weren’t on the bus, they did try to right the wrong by giving $50,000 to the Chicago Park District and $50,000 to Friends of the Chicago River.

And more from Block Club Chicago:

The culprit turned out to be the band’s tour bus driver, then-42-year-old Stefan Wohl, who pleaded guilty to charges of reckless conduct and discharging contaminates to cause water pollution. He got hit with 18 months on probation, 150 hours of community service and had to pay a $10,000 fine to Friends of the Chicago River.

There’s now a plaque commemorating this horrifying moment:

In 2023, Riot Fest created a plaque honoring the occasion as a sort of “official remembrance” for Chicago’s hatred of Dave Matthews and its love for poop jokes. https://t.co/PWxzeLv48Z

— Chicago Movie Tours (@chimovietours) August 8, 2024