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Written by: Matthew McGuire
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The LOCKN’ Music Festival in Arrington, Virginia has called off performances for Thursday due to severe weather on Wednesday evening. The festival organizers have just made this statement:
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River Ridge Mall, 3405 Candlers Mtn Rd, there is plenty of parking and restaurants.
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James River Conference Center, 400 Court Street, there are restaurants and attendees are welcome to stay in the parking lot overnight.
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The Hillcats Stadium, 3176 Fort Avenue (enter off Oakley), attendees are welcome to stay in the parking lot overnight.
There are available hotels in Lynchburg and Charlottesville. We will provide regular updates and appreciate your patience while we work to provide a safe event site & an amazing festival.
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In 2014, we covered the event on site, but due to outside interference, we will be unable to make it to the festival this year. It is still our goal to update and keep the guests of the festival informed. To help with this, we have the #LOCKN2015 live feed on our homepage, as well as important tweets made from the organizers of the festival.
Last year, when the festival did have to put the music on pause for a large storm, the LOCKN team had the grounds back open and ready within a few short hours.
On a positive note, the festival organizers at LOCKN have several years in experience putting on music festivals, and have shown excellent responsiveness to the rough weather.
The festival is great to bike around in, but after the grounds getting wet, I would be careful if you plan to bring a bicycle.
Bad weather can be a setback for several outdoor events. As attendees, I find that when the weather gets rough, it is smart to be safe, but also have the time of your life. When I look back at all the events, I remember the good and bad times at the Summer Camp Music Festival in Chillicothe, Illinois.
In 2004, severe weather hit during the festival. The festival organizers called us over to a side stage, and informed us we were all to vacate the premises immediately.
I will never forget, pulling the stakes on the tent up, rolling it up, and throwing the over my shoulder and feeling the hail strike down on the tent as I walked back to the vehicle.
My friend and I should have pulled off to the side of the road, under a tree, and waited the storm out, but we drove down the interstate laughing and joking about how we almost died.
The reason I tell this story is to shine the light on the pros behind bad weather happening before an outdoor event, in comparison to during the event.
The organizers of the festival have released the following statement:
Earlier this evening, a severe thunderstorm with high winds passed over Lockn’ and caused damage to the festival grounds, particularly the parking and campground area. The good news is that no one was injured and the entire team is focused on cleaning up and preparing for a great festival. The unfortunate news is that we will be forced to delay the opening of the campgrounds and cancel Thursday’s performances in order to give the team the time necessary to make sure the festival grounds are safe for both our guests and our artists.
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Carly Shields, manager for The Southern Belles, has released this statement:
In the wake of LOCKN’ Festival cancelling their first day of music on the farm in Arrington, THE SOUTHERN BELLES have booked an “emergency lemonade jam” at The Ante Room in Charlottesville featuring Rockn’ to Lockn’ DC-area winners MOOGATU and local up-and-comers Kings of Belmont. MOOGATU’s performance at LOCKN’ was cancelled due to weather along with sets from Strangefolk, Deer Tick, Soulive, Little Feat, The String Cheese Incident, Billy & the Kids, The Doobie Brothers, Mickey Hart & EOTO, and Galactic.
THE SOUTHERN BELLES won the Richmond Rockn’ to Lockn’ competition on July 31st, beating out 3 other bands by popular vote. Their twang-touched jam rock fits in perfectly with the 1970’s-music atmosphere of the festival and their set on Sunday at 12:30PM is still scheduled as planned. MOOGATU, who was representing Northern Virginia and was set to open the festival today, has been cancelled due to the weather and forced delay of LOCKN grounds opening.
“Yes, it’s very unfortunate that this happened, but with festivals and weather, you just can’t ever tell,” said concert organizer Ben Butterworth, who also manages The Southern Belles. “We want to turn lemons into lemonade here, and we feel like Moogatu especially deserves a chance to play for all these people who came out to the festival.”
According to their official Facebook, Lockn’ Festival will open their gates early Friday morning. Several Charlottesville-area businesses have opened their lots for overnight stay so fans are encouraged to enjoy the area and its offerings before getting on line in Arrington tomorrow morning.
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Storm on Wednesday at LOCKN 2015
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Video by: Tim Rehard
LOCKN Music Festival News
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