Severe weather is impacting concerts, so what are live music organizers doing about it?

When Emma Furrier arrived at Fenway Park on June 20 for Lana Del Rey’s inaugural headlining show in Boston, the last thing she expected was to spend half the night under the bleachers. 

But after three days of a blistering heat wave, the mayor had just declared a state of emergency. When heat lightning struck, Fenway staff sent fans to shelter in place in the stuffy concourse, where they remained for two hours with little to no water or airflow. 

The safety precautions the venue had promised prior to the show – free waters, cooling stations, electric fans – were nonexistent, and fans started feeling ill and “dropping like flies,” she says.

“Every 10 minutes the Fenway employees screamed at us to move so they could get a stretcher or a wheelchair (through), but it was shoulder-to-shoulder, every part of your body was pressed up against another's," Furrier says. "It was really scary because no one knew what was happening.”

The show started at 10 p.m. and lasted only 45 minutes, about half the singer's usual set. But by then, Furrier felt so sick and dehydrated that she “couldn’t even enjoy the show, which was really disappointing,” she says. “I just couldn’t wait to go home and lay down.”

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While she “survived” the show, she “never wants to experience it again.” 

USA TODAY has reached out to Fenway Park for comment. 

Furrier's harrowing experience is far from unique this summer as rising temperatures and extreme weather pose an imminent risk to outdoor concerts. In areas where summer storms are uncommon, venues may lack the necessarily protocol for handling potentially dangerous evacuations. And, some artists and managers are starting to hesitate before booking outdoor shows in the hottest cities.

Outdoor concerts are becoming riskier bookings in the summer and shoulder season

Dr. Gregg M. Garfin, deputy director for science translation and outreach at The University of Arizona Institute for Resilient Environments and Societies, says rising temperature and heat waves are already impacting summer concerts, and in hotter regions, the shoulder seasons (spring and fall) are becoming riskier too. 

Last year, both rockers Disturbed and rapper 50 Cent canceled concerts in Phoenix when temperatures remained above 115 degrees. Disturbed’s equipment reportedly wouldn’t work in the extreme heat, and 50 Cent wrote on X (formerly Twitter), “I’ll be back in Arizona soon! 116 degrees is dangerous for everyone.” Even cities not known for hot weather aren’t immune. Pittsburgh’s Ed Sheeran concert had 17 heat-related hospitalizations, according to the City.

“We’re already having 100 degree temperatures in April, May, September and October in places like Tucson, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Las Cruces and other Southwestern cities. You expect those months to be significantly cooler,” he says, emphasizing that being unprepared can increase adverse outcomes. 

Urban cities like New York, Washington D.C. and Chicago are also subject to the “heat island effect." Structures such as buildings, roads and other infrastructure absorb and re-emit the sun's heat more intensely than natural landscapes with water bodies and greenery. As a result, daytime temperatures in urbanized areas are about 1–7 degrees higher than temperatures in outlying areas and nighttime temperatures are about 2-5 degrees higher, according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency.

“If you don’t have a chance to get into air conditioning, you might be at risk of a situation where your body doesn’t have a chance to cool down,” Garfin cautions. “Combine that with air pollution, alcohol and drug use and dehydration, and it sets people up to get really sick or even risk death.”

'It was traumatic and I don’t want to go back'

Jeaurdyn Leffel drove three hours down to Southern Wisconsin for Noah Kahan’s sold-out show at the Alpine Valley Music Theatre on July 13. At the venue, her group settled down on the lawn and anxiously awaited for Kahan to grace the stage. But just before the show started at 8 p.m., an announcement came over the speaker to evacuate the lawn for severe weather. The walk back to their car felt extremely unsafe as an intense wind storm broke out. 

“We knew that there’s a lot of storms in Central Wisconsin, but Southern Wisconsin is supposed to be fine. The storm really came out of nowhere,” she says. “We weren’t prepared, especially because it wasn’t predicted.”

The venue told them to tune into the radio station for weather updates, but no new information ever came through, and there was no service to check for communication from the venue on social media. Ultimately, the show was rescheduled, but Leffel chose to be refunded and skip the later date. 

“It was traumatic and I don’t want to go back to that venue,” she says. “It makes me sick. I want to see him, but they have a lot to fix.”

USA TODAY has reached out to the Alpine Valley Music Theatre for comment. 

Venues may see less bookings in the summer months 

Jones Willingham, the director of ticketing and marketing at Avondale Brewing Company in Birmingham, Alabama, says the summer concert season has become increasingly troublesome for outdoor music venues. 

For Willingham, the biggest question is where to draw the line between venue responsibility and fans' personal choices. 

“It is a mutual effort to survive the summer season between the venue and fans. For Gen Z artists, the fans show up early, camp all day, press up on the barricade, and naturally a few pass out,” he says. “But with T-Pain on June 30, which was the hottest day of the year, his fans hydrated more before going into the venue.” 

Venue staff at Avondale have prioritized safety, primarily by keeping fans hydrated — no matter the financial cost. 

“We have a handful of water stations that are accessible around the venue. We put (bottled) water at the barricade for the especially packed shows to pass out as needed,” he says. “But those folks that are camping at the barricade who don't want to leave or drink and aren't taking care of themselves, I always want to be able to help them out the most, because that's who's going to pass out.”

The venue has also made slight scheduling changes to avoid the higher midday temperatures. Once a month in the summer season, they host a garden party that typically lasts from 2 to 9 p.m., but they have pushed it to 4 to 10 p.m.

However, Willingham says over his six years at Avondale, the season has felt hotter and hotter, and he worries for the future of summer concerts altogether.

“I hope it doesn’t deter artists and crews from playing outdoor venues at all,” he says. “Usually they just don’t want to deal with the potential of rain and lightning canceling the show, but it continually getting hotter adds a new element.”

He could see “summer” shows getting pushed further into the year. When he first started, Avondale’s last shows fell towards the end of October; now, they’re as late as mid-November. But, he says students on summer break are a large component of their market, and fall shows pose the risk of lower sales. 

Artist managers struggle with day-of operations under extreme weather conditions

Zoe Salvucci, an artist manager and music photographer, says she will be hesitant to book outdoor shows next summer due to the frustration of shows getting canceled and impacted by severe weather. 

“It feels like nobody has been planning any differently this summer, but I have a feeling it’ll change next summer just because of how crazy it’s been this year,” she says. 

In July, one of the bands Salvucci works with, Trevor Hall, played in Charlottesville, North Carolina in 96 degree weather. Luckily, the amphitheater was shaded, but it was still “brutally hot.” 

“But nothing ever really gets canceled from heat like that,” she says. “So everybody just has to be a little more uncomfortable, because the show will go on.” 

According to Salvucci, it falls on the venues to plan in case of an emergency, but the artist team behaves as if the show is going forward until the last minute. 

“I think one of the biggest problems with this whole system is not calling it off earlier in the day,” she says. “Everybody always waits until there's lightning within five miles to cancel, and that's when a panic starts, because it's kind of too late to get everybody out safely and now we're all rushing.”

And, calling off shows doesn’t only hurt the fans who looked forward to the experience — a large portion of artists’ income comes from tour tickets and on-site merch sales. “No one wins in the situation of a cancellation, but everybody’s safer,” she adds. 

For tour manager and The Brazen Youth drummer Micah Rubin, making sure the necessary precautions are in place to protect the band, crew and fans are crucial for any tour. On a run in May, the air conditioning broke at one of the venues just before they showed up.

"It was dangerous. As a tour manager, I had to make sure the venue was providing waters to the concert goers, because the audience was kind of crammed together like sardines, just sweating," he says.

Concert goers can take steps to protect their health

Preparedness tools like heat index forecasts and safety guidelines can help concert organizers and attendees better manage the risks of heat. Garfin recommends using the National Weather Service’s heat index, which takes into account wind and humidity to provide a real-feel temperature, for up-to-date information on heat waves. 

He also recommends hydrating before and during concerts, and avoiding other risk factors like drug and alcohol use that can impair your judgment about your exposure and risk of dehydration. 

However, it’s a two-way street between fans and venues. 

For Furrier, she knows “did all she could” to protect herself at the Lana Del Rey show. She dressed cool, had a portable fan and brought in water, but it wasn't enough without the venue providing resources as well.

“I was relying on Fenway to be prepared like they said they were going to be, and they weren’t,” she said. “It does make me very wary to go to outdoor shows now knowing that they're not going to protect their fans.”