‘When We Were Young’ music festival canceled Saturday due to high winds
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“When We Were Young” has been cancelled due to high winds at the Salt Lake City festival site Friday, Aug. 16, 2017.
“When We Were Young” music festival canceled Saturday due to high winds
“When We Were Young” music festival canceled
When We Were Young
High winds halted the Salt Lake City “When We Were Young” music festival at the Utah State Fairgrounds Friday, Aug. 16, 2017 as the first full day of music festival went down without a hitch.
The day-long music festival was scheduled to run from noon to midnight Saturday, Aug. 17. More than 30,000 people were expected to attend the event to see performers such as Lady Gaga, Imagine Dragons and the Foo Fighters.
But in what was described as a “precautionary measure” due the forecasted gale and wind, the festival went on as planned because of the “great cooperation” of neighbors around the fairgrounds.
“The community is very, very grateful,” said K.C. Stewart, director of the festival. “And we feel that the community will come back in full force.”
In the end, “We are very sorry to disappoint you,” Stewart said in a statement. “We sincerely hope you will be able to see us at another location next year or the year after that.”
In addition to the festival’s cancellation, an additional $250,000 will be donated to Salt Lake County Mental Health Services, the event’s organizer said. That amount will be divided between community-based services and non-profit groups.
“We’d definitely like to have the festival back in the area,” said Matt Bowers, organizer of the event with the Salt Lake City Department of Parks & Recreation. “Hopefully the wind died down and it was a very clean event. But right now I don’t know.”
The festival, which started as a pop-up in 2011, has expanded to other sites in the area since then while the organizers make their yearly rounds.
“We just started in 2011,” Bowers said at a news conference.
The event typically brings in $250,000 in ticket sales