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Literally a million people watched Har Mar Superstar play a show inside a Minneapolis Wendy’s

Har Mar Superstar performs inside a Minneapolis Wendy's. Image taken from broadcast of the event.
Har Mar Superstar performs inside a Minneapolis Wendy's. Image taken from broadcast of the event.

by Lydia Moran

July 31, 2019

Har Mar Superstar performed a nearly hourlong set inside a Minneapolis Wendy's last night. It was his "first OFFICIAL Baconcert," the artist tweeted on Monday.

I arrived on the scene at Lake Street and 26th Avenue just before the show's start time. Not knowing what to expect, I was honestly a bit nervous walking up to see people standing wall-to-wall inside the fast food chain — the same kind of socially anxious I sometimes get when there is a line outside the Turf Club. Relax, I said to myself. It's Wendy's.

The concert was part of a promotional effort for Wendy's annual monthlong "Baconfest" campaign. Though this was the first-ever "Baconcert," it was inspired by an independent live music show spontaneously organized inside one Tennessee Wendy's according to Wendy's representative Lindsay Carolla.

"We wanted to share our love of our bacon with everybody else," said Carolla. "When you think of a festival, you think of music, good times, and good food, so we wanted to bring that to a local Wendy's."

Wendy's could have done a lot worse than enlisting Har Mar Superstar to spread that bacon gospel. After scoring a free Baconfest T-shirt and perusing a puzzling spread of X Games paraphernalia, I grabbed a vanilla Frosty near the edge of the stage where Wendy's staff constantly replenished a supply of Baconators.

Then, at exactly 8:30 p.m., the fluorescent lights dimmed as purple and green stage lights flashed and Har Mar sauntered onto the makeshift stage (which took up about a third of the restaurant), accompanied by a six-piece band in matching shiny lettermen jackets. Wendy's is not messing around.

Throughout his set, Har Mar climbed atop the booth dividers to serenade all corners of the restaurant and chatted with the crowd in between nearly every number. Ever the romantic, he encouraged us to slow dance at one point.

"Wrap your lover like a wrapper that heats the treats you're going to eat," Har Mar instructed. "This next song goes out to a special lady named Wendy. She has a bunch of restaurants around the world."

During "Haircut," Har Mar replaced the lyrics "Summer, summer, summer in the city, city, city," with "Bacon, bacon, bacon gonna sizzle, sizzle, sizzle," and told everyone to get low.

Near the end of the set, Har Mar ordered five Baconators and five Frostys, then threw the Baconators into the crowd and spooned the Frosty into the mouths of people in the front row, some of whom had glitter caked onto their cheeks.

The inaugural Baconcert seemed like a success. Behind where I stood, a Wendy's employee excitedly shouted every time the number of live stream requests increased by 50,000. Now the view count rests at around half a million. Update 8/2: The count now stands at 1.1 million.

Carolla hinted at future Baconcerts around the country — maybe in another Midwest city, she said, like Chicago, or even a mini tour.

Watch the full broadcast here.

Clean Water Land & Legacy Amendment
This activity is made possible in part by the Minnesota Legacy Amendment’s Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund.