Gillette Stadium was just the start — the nor'easter has now wiped out three East Coast festivals
Lauryn Hill and Wyclef Jean were supposed to mark 30 years of The Score on Central Park's Great Lawn on Saturday. By Friday afternoon, crews were taking that stage apart, and Ed Sheeran's was already in trucks outside Boston.
Ed Sheeran's two Gillette Stadium shows were only the first domino. By Friday afternoon the nor'easter moving up the coast had also canceled the Global Citizen Festival in Central Park, the three-day All Things Go NYC at Forest Hills Stadium and the whole of Oceans Calling in Ocean City, Maryland. For Global Citizen it is the first cancellation in the festival's 14-year history, CBS New York reports.
Global Citizen, which gives away tickets in exchange for advocacy actions, put it plainly:
"We cannot safely bring tens of thousands of Global Citizens, artists, crew, vendors, partners, and staff onto the Great Lawn."
The stage on the Great Lawn was built to handle winds of up to 35 mph, and the forecast went past that, according to AllHipHop, which broke the cancellation. Crews were already taking it down on Friday. The lawn itself has a history here: the 2023 edition went ahead in heavy rain and left it badly damaged.
Who lost their weekend
Put the four cancellations side by side and the size of the hole is easier to see:
- Global Citizen Festival (Central Park, Saturday) — Ms. Lauryn Hill and Wyclef Jean marking 30 years of the Fugees' The Score, plus Lenny Kravitz, John Legend, Lainey Wilson, Shaboozey and TXT, with Hugh Jackman hosting.
- All Things Go NYC (Forest Hills Stadium, Friday to Sunday) — Carly Rae Jepsen, Brandi Carlile, Ethel Cain, Muna, Zara Larsson and Lola Young.
- Oceans Calling (Ocean City, Friday to Sunday) — Dave Matthews Band, Hootie & the Blowfish, Gwen Stefani and Matchbox Twenty. Beach erosion knocked out Friday first; the rest of the weekend followed.
- Ed Sheeran (Gillette Stadium, Friday and Saturday) — TMZ has aerial footage of the stage already being loaded into trucks.
Smaller dates went too, including the Beach Boys at the Big E in Massachusetts.
What comes back, and when
None of the four has announced a make-up date. All Things Go says AXS buyers get automatic refunds within 30 business days, Oceans Calling is refunding through Front Gate Tickets, and Ticketmaster is refunding Sheeran's buyers automatically. Global Citizen will honor the free tickets people earned and refund paid ones, and it is already talking about next year:
"We will be back in Central Park next year. We can't wait for you to be there with us."
Sheeran, meanwhile, heads to domed stadiums in Atlanta and Indianapolis over the next two weekends. After this Friday, a roof is not a small detail.
Previously we wrote: Keke Wyatt was arrested on child cruelty charges in Georgia — and the news took five days to get out
