Bayfest Music Festival has cancelled some of its performances on Friday as a storm heads toward Mobile, Alabama, but says the show will go on.
The performances on the Gospel, Launching Pad, Jazz and Café stages will be cancelled due to the unpredictability of the storm and the need to focus on the main stages’ logistic needs, according to the festival.
Meanwhile, all performances on the Coke, ATT/Southern Ford Dealers and Miller Lite/Wind Creek Casino Stages will go on.
Festival organizers said via Facebook on Friday morning that Mobile is under a hurricane watch, not warning.
“The local National Weather Service office is advising us that the storm is weakening, and currently, the timing of landfall is approximately 10:00 pm Saturday night. At the moment, it may not even turn into a full hurricane. The nature of hurricanes is that predictions can change dramatically in a matter of hours.
“This afternoon at 4:00 pm, BayFest officials will be meeting with city officials, EMS, and the National Weather Service to make a decision about the rest of the weekend. We will issue another Media Advisory as soon as that meeting is adjourned.”
The festival “will go on,” it said.
People on Facebook weren’t happy about the decision.
“Sounds like you guys are just trying to do just enough to justify keeping the money,” said Cassandra Curry.
“ If you cared about safety, you would cancel the event,” said Jessica Lacy. “I’m going to be one of the ones out there working the event and making sure everyone else is safe because they want to go out in the middle of a storm! It’s not my choice and I would gladly stay home if I could, but if safety for both city workers and the crowd was a priority, they would cancel it!!”
However, others didn’t appreciate all the complaining.
“Complain about the bands, complain about the weather, complain about the price of the festival and the festival itself. Thought this was a Facebook FAN page,” said Tony Castronova. “You are all adults and if you don’t want to go for lack of interest in the bands or weather then don’t go and move on with your lives. At least I won’t have to be bumping elbows on my way to the beer tent.”
