The Port Macquarie date of the Red Hot Summer tour, which was scheduled to take place last Saturday (February 4), was cancelled due to weather-induced damage to the concert site.
“Due to damage sustained in a Super Cell storm this afternoon, [tomorrow’s] Red Hot Summer Tour at Westport Park, Port Macquarie will not be proceeding,” organisers wrote in a Facebook post announcing the cancellation. The supercell was said to have caused extensive damage the staging, production and site infrastructure, leaving “promoters with no alternative other than to cancel the event.”
The post went on to promise a rescheduled date for Red Hot Summer in Port Macquarie within the “coming hours”, however no date has been announced at the time of writing. According to the ABC, New South Wales’ Mid North Coast region experienced a storm resembling a ‘mini-cyclone’, which resulted in multiple damaged homes, mass power outages and many calls for help to the state’s Emergency Services.
Tickets for Port Macquire’s Red Hot Summer tour date will remain eligible for the rescheduled date, with refunds available for those unable to attend. Prior to the cancellation, Westport Park was set to host Red Hot Summer performers Paul Kelly, Missy Higgins and ex-Powderfinger frontman Bernard Fanning, as well as Ian Moss, Troy Cassar-Daley, Vika & Linda and Mark Seymour of Hunters & Collectors.
Red Hot Summer was one of multiple music events to be cancelled due to extreme weather in recent weeks. Late last month, the Auckland edition of Laneway Festival was scrapped due to record severe rain which made it “no longer safe to proceed,” organisers said in a statement. A day prior, Elton John’s scheduled appearance in the same city as part of his ‘Farewell Yellow Brick Road’ tour was likewise cancelled, just minutes before its start time, due to the downpour.
Last year, Hopkins Creek, This That, When We Were Young and Strawberry Fields were among the Australian festivals to be cancelled or postponed due to adverse weather conditions, while the mainstage performances of Splendour In The Grass’ first day were also called off due to weather-induced damage to the festival site.