It should be a big celebration for the city to pay tribute to the fight against the corona pandemic. But halfway through the five-hour program, the weather thwarted New Yorkers’ plans.
New York – Thunderstorms and heavy rain caused a major concert in New York’s Central Park to be canceled on Saturday. By then, after around two and a half of five hours planned, Carlos Santana, Andrea Bocelli and LL Cool J had already performed.
Other artists like Reggeaton star Maluma, Patti Smith and Bruce Springsteen hadn’t played yet. At the event with 60,000 announced visitors, the city wanted to celebrate the fighting spirit of its citizens during the corona pandemic and the end of many restrictions.
Lots of lightning and heavy rain
Broadcaster CNN reported that concert promoter Clive Davis was in the background talking to Mayor Bill de Blasio about a sequel without an audience later that evening. Around an hour and a half after the demolition, however, it had rained heavily near the park with lots of lightning.
Singer Barry Manilow, who was just about to be canceled and sang his hits “Copacabana” and “Mandy”, was then connected to CNN by phone and sang two of his hits for presenter Anderson Cooper. His next planned song was “I Made It Through The Rain”, explained Manilow.
Lots of free tickets for vaccinated people
Around 80 percent of the tickets for the concert, which was broadcast worldwide on CNN, were free. Visitors had to prove at least their first vaccination against the virus at the entrance. Nevertheless, there was criticism that in view of the increasing number of cases because of the delta variant, the concert would come too early.
In New York, most of the restrictions due to the pandemic have been lifted, but since the beginning of the week a vaccination certificate has been mandatory for most interiors of restaurants, bars, theaters, cinemas and other leisure facilities. The east coast metropolis of New York was the epicenter of the corona pandemic in the USA last spring. The infection process is now under control. dpa
