Central Park concert cut short by storm

The crowd at a superstar-laden Central Park concert meant to celebrate New York City’s recovery from the coronavirus was asked to leave because of severe weather as Hurricane Henri approached.

For the first couple of hours, messages of New York’s resilience were sandwiched between performances by the New York Philharmonic, Jennifer Hudson, Carlos Santana, LL Cool J, and Earth, Wind & Fire, among others.

But shortly after 7:30 p.m., as Barry Manilow was performing “Can’t Smile Without You,” lightning brought the concert to a halt. “Please seek shelter for your safety,” an announcer intoned, stopping the music, as people began filing out of the park.

New York City police on Saturday night told concertgoers via Twitter to “calmly move to the nearest exits and proceed to areas outside of the park. This is NOT an emergency.”

The crowds were sent home, and the concert was brought to an abrupt halt. Even with Hurricane Henri expected to make landfall in the region today, officials held out the hope of resuming the performance if the weather allowed. Many of the headliners, including Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon,

Patti Smith, Elvis Costello and Maluma, had yet to perform when it was cut short. But shortly before 10:30 p.m., the show was called off for good.

Saturday’s event comes after a series of hip-hop concerts in the last week at outdoor venues around the city.

The concert kicked off amid worries about the contagious Delta variant of COVID-19.

New York City over the past week has averaged just under 2,000 new cases of COVID-19 a day, according to state statistics. That’s up from just under 200 cases per day in late June. Only about 54 percent of all city residents are fully vaccinated against the virus.

The homecoming show required everyone ages 12 and older to show proof they had had at least one dose of a vaccine; children ages 11 and younger, who are still ineligible for the vaccines, were required to wear masks.