In New York City, Saturday night was intended to be a party, but heavy weather wrecked everything completely. A “homecoming” concert featuring a bevy of celebrities was held at Central Park in New York. On Saturday night, as hurricane Henri approached the east coast of the United States, the “We Love NYC” event, which was hosted during a still-ongoing epidemic, had another challenge to contend with. As the star-studded event concluded on Saturday, the storm’s outer bands brought catastrophic weather to New York. The event was abruptly ended and the 60,000 guests were urged to leave immediately after reports of lightning strikes.
So quickly, in fact, that the show ended midway through a Barry Manilow song. On Saturday, CNN aired a video of Manilow performing until a guy entered the stage and cut him and his band off, after which an announcement advised everyone to seek shelter due to the terrible weather.
When the camera moved to a suddenly anxious crowd, Manilow’s performance of “I Can’t Smile Without You” came to an abrupt halt. Because of lightning in the neighborhood, an announcement ordered the gathering to “please seek shelter for your safety,” and mayhem ensued as people rushed out of the park ahead of the storm.
When the storm slammed the city, the performance was approximately halfway over, and acts including Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon, Patti Smith, and Elvis Costello never made it to the stage. However, Manilow did perform once again, this time for CNN’s Anderson Cooper.
It’s undoubtedly a dismal finale to the event, however it was canceled for good reason.
Hopefully, everyone made it out safely and is preparing for the storm that is expected to hit this weekend.
