The show will not go on: Harvest Music Festival cancels Saturday concerts ahead of storm

The Harvest Music Festival has cancelled all programming for Saturday, including ticketed shows, ahead of Hurricane Lee making landfall in New Brunswick this weekend.

Ryan Sullivan, chair of the Harvest board, said the decision to cancel was difficult but given the forecast and the province's recommendation that people stay home, the shows were cancelled for the safety of attendees, volunteers and the artists.

Friday shows will still go ahead, but all free and ticketed shows on Saturday, including indoor ones, will not go on.

As of Thursday, organizers had only cancelled Saturday's free shows and still hoped the main shows would go ahead. 

"Given the forecast that it is now, it just doesn't look like it'd be safe to have people out and about, whether they're inside our venue or are on their way to and from," Sullivan said.

In an interview Thursday afternoon, Harvest's music director Brent Staeben had said he and other organizers were closely watching as Hurricane Lee made its approach up the Atlantic Ocean.

90 km/h gusts possible

The storm was expected to hit the Fundy coast of New Brunswick late Friday night bringing winds between 90 and 120 kilometres an hour to areas along the shore, according to CBC's Ryan Snoddon.

Winds were expected to be be worst along the coast, but gusts could range between 60 and 90 kilometres an hour in the rest of the province.

According to Environment Canada, areas including Fredericton can expect high winds and possible rainfall totals exceeding 100 millimetres.

At a briefing Thursday, officials with New Brunswick's Emergency Measures Organization urged people to prepare for possible power outages and storm surges.

Asked whether EMO had any guidance for organizers of festivals like Harvest, director Kyle Leavitt didn't say whether or not the festival should go ahead.

"We've been in contact with both the Fredericton EMO and [Harvest] organizers through our local EMO contacts, and we're confident that they're being provided with up-to-date information and will update their plans as they see fit," Leavitt said.

Next steps

On Thursday, Staeben said organizers tried looking for alternate venues for those events, but couldn't find anything appropriate.

"There's nothing really available that could handle the, you know, the crowds and the complexity of Harvest at this late ... juncture."

After the Friday night shows, Sullivan said, there will be a combination of getting certain items inside and making sure that other outdoor setups are secure to weather the storm. 

He also said the festival's priority right now is safety and making sure everything is secure, but that organizers will turn their attention to contacting ticket and pass holders next week. 

The decision to cut the festival short was challenging, but "there'll be lots of Harvest Saturday nights in the years to come," he said. "We'll be back next year and bigger and better and ready to roll."

Similar events cancelled

The Harvest Music Festival draws thousands of people into the city's downtown, even if just to take in the atmosphere as Queen Street is blocked off to traffic to allow for food trucks, patios and buskers.

Other businesses, like the Cap, a bar and music venue, get in on the action as well, and have planned a series of shows throughout the week and weekend.

But like Harvest organizers, they've had to cancel some events, including their outdoor evening show on Saturday, as well as a record expo earlier that day.

"We worked long and hard to get here, so it's obviously ... frustrating to have to cancel, but we're also not in a place where we want to put anybody in any harm's way," said Atkinson.

Both the show and the record expo will be held at a later date, while outdoor events scheduled for Friday evening will go ahead, but inside the upper level of the Cap, known as the Wilser's Room.

Atkinson said Harvest week is typically a boon for businesses in Fredericton, but with the rainy weather earlier in the week as well as Lee, that might not be the case this year.

"It's probably the second-highest grossing week of the year for them, so people are probably going to feel impacted by that," he said.