This weekend’s Global Citizen festival at New York’s Central Park has been canceled due to potentially severe weather in northeast U.S.
“Due to the extreme weather forecast for New York City this weekend, we have made the difficult decision, in consultation with the City of New York and NYC Parks, to cancel this year’s Global Citizen Festival,” organizers announced Friday, a day before the fest was to be staged on the Great Lawn. “Forecasts predict dangerous conditions and circumstances in which we cannot safely bring tens of thousands of Global Citizens, artists, crew, vendors, partners, and staff onto the Great Lawn, let alone all of the equipment required. Safety has to come first.”
The brewing Nor’easter along the eastern coast of the U.S. has also forced the cancelation of Ed Sheeran’s Gillette Stadium shows in Massachusetts as well as the All Things Go festival set for this weekend in Forest Hills, Queens. On Friday afternoon, organizers of the second annual CBGB fest announced its cancelation, posting on social media that “the safety of our fans, the artists and local crews is our top priority.”
Global Citizen organizers added, “This is the first time in 14 years we’ve had to cancel. We have spent this week working through countless contingencies, which were ultimately not possible, and cancelling is a decision we have not taken lightly.”
This year’s Global Citizen was set to feature Ms. Lauryn Hill and Wyclef Jean, Lainey Wilson, Shaboozey, Lenny Kravitz, John Legend, Alicia Keys and Friends, Tomorrow X Together, and more, with Hugh Jackman serving as host.
“Food that was due to be available at the Festival will be donated to local organizations serving the people of New York City,” organizers said Friday. “We are enormously proud of what we have achieved together this year – one of the most impactful years for our movement around the world – and we are deeply grateful to every artist, world leader, partner, crew member, vendor, global citizen, and our team. We will be back in Central Park next year. We can’t wait for you to be there with us.”
This article has been updated on Friday, September 25th at 2:45 p.m. EST to reflect the cancelation of the CBGB festival.
