Dave Matthews Band bus incident
2004 environmental incident in the Chicago River
On August 8, 2004, a tour bus belonging to the American rock group Dave Matthews Band dumped an estimated 800 pounds (360 kg) of human waste from the bus' blackwater tank through the Kinzie Street Bridge in Chicago onto an open-top passenger sightseeing boat sailing in the Chicago River below. The incident has been referred to as "Poopgate" in retrospective assessments.
The members of Dave Matthews Band were not on or near the bus during the incident. The band's bus driver, Stefan Wohl, initially denied dumping the waste and was supported by the band. However, he was later determined to be the only person on the bus during the incident; in April 2005, he pleaded guilty to the dumping, and the band fired him without pay.
As part of the band's 2005 legal settlement with the state of Illinois, in exchange for the band not admitting guilt to the incident in court, its members agreed to pay a $200,000 fine to fund environmental protection efforts and other related causes. They also donated a combined $100,000 to two groups that protect the river and the surrounding area.
Background
Dave Matthews Band had booked rooms at the Peninsula Hotel on 108 E. Superior Street for a two-night show at Alpine Valley Music Theatre in East Troy, Wisconsin. The incident occurred between the first and second night of the concert. The band booked five buses for its show; Stefan Wohl drove the bus of the band's violinist Boyd Tinsley.
The public source identifies “Dave Matthews Band bus incident” as 2004 environmental incident in the Chicago River. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Dave, Matthews and Band.
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Place names and jurisdictional language are key evidence: both can reveal earlier catalogue descriptions and overlooked record series. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q85728271. Authority coordinates are 41.889, -87.639. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2004 and 2005.
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This entry incorporates text from “Dave Matthews Band bus incident” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.