On Saturday night, Harry Styles kicked off the first leg of his Love On Tour show series at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
But while some fans appreciated the return to semi-normalcy of the on-stage antics of Olivia Wilde's current beau, others expressed concern and annoyance at the apparent lack of consideration for COVID spreading. The most divisive moment of the night was when Styles took a gulp from his water bottle before spitting it out, in a shower that splattered his front-seated audience.
One Twitter user expressed confusion at the appeal of such a display, even in a time when Coronavirus wasn't a risk factor. They wrote, "I know all my timeline has stanned harry styles for like nine years but can you please stop hyping up the fact that he spits and throws water into the crowd as if that wasn't disgusting before a pandemic".
Another took a more sympathetic approach, tweeting, "Please stop taking a drink from water bottles then throwing it on people and doing the whale. That's...an incredible amount of germs. I know most of us would let you spit in our mouths but just maybe retire it for this tour? No hate."
Meanwhile, a third fan of Styles threw into doubt his idea to embark upon a tour at all. They wrote, "please cancel or postpone your tour tbh, idc what precautions you have in place but it's literally dangerous and not worth it to put that many people at risk".
Styles originally postponed Love On Tour at the beginning of 2020, citing the importance of "the protection of touring crew, fans and everyone else around the world". He later scrapped all tour dates in Europe and is currently playing shows exclusively across the US.
But some fans have suggested that the protective measures in place for those attending the Love On Tour shows don't seem to apply to the artist himself. One user wrote, "Something about Harry doing the whale while preaching wear a mask to keep others safe don't sit right with me ... like sir your spit is everywhere now."
Regardless of the criticism surrounding his decision to perform a spit-take while on stage, and to embark upon a tour in the first place, Styles seemed to have a blast at the first show of his 2021 tour circuit. The former One Direction member tweeted, "Vegas, you blew me away. I'd been waiting for that. Thank you so much for all the love."