NEW ORLEANS — Wind and rain from Hurricane Isaac forced a wave of concert cancellations in late August and over Labor Day weekend as remnants of the storm moved inland. Although 2012 wasn’t the worst year on record for named storms from the Atlantic — thanks partly to better infrastructure, Isaac wasn’t nearly as costly as Katrina in 2005 — freakish weather has cancelled a number of events this summer.
By causing a wave of airport closures, Isaac nixed performances ranging from the Chicago/Kool & the Gang show Aug. 31 at the Tuscaloosa Amphitheatre to the Aug. 30 show featuring the Hot 8 Brass Band at Santa Monica Pier. (Six of the band’s eight performers were stuck in New Orleans.)
Isaac’s meandering uncertainty also led to the cancellation of many Aug. 27 gigs at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, FL, including Lynyrd Skynyrd’s show. The Southern rockers also had to pull the plug on their show set for Aug. 31 in Memphis as Isaac moved from the Gulf Coast to soak drought-scorched inland areas.
Other bands forced to cancel more than one show this season included The Band Perry. Lighting cancelled their Sept. 1 gig at the Maryland State Fair, and severe thunderstorms and flash flooding also cancelled their opening performance for Brad Paisley at the 20,000-seat Gexa Energy Pavilion in Dallas Aug. 18.
Although event organizers might have a heightened awareness of the downside risks of staging events in bad weather after the collapse of staging at the Indianapolis State Fair’s main stage killed seven in Aug. 2011, there are still plenty of outdoor concerts that continue to proceed on a rain-or-shine basis.
Sugarland, the band set to take the stage shortly before the Indianapolis collapse, opted to pull the plug on this year’s Aug. 25, 2012 show at the OKC Zoo amphitheater in Oklahoma City. In Indianapolis, on Sept. 2, the America We Remember concert planned for Indianapolis Sept. 2 was also cancelled.
But Isaac’s soggy aftermath didn’t keep another Indianapolis event, the four-day Rib America Festival that began Aug. 31, from getting underway as planned. It featured It featured George Clinton & Parliament/Funkadelic, moe, Tesla, Cheap Trick, Eddie Money and Blue Oyster Cult.
