Night concerts for Artscape were called off Saturday after thunderstorms and heavy winds blew into the Baltimore area, cutting short the art and music festival for a second consecutive day.
“Artscape is a rain or shine event, but this evening’s weather calls for dangerous conditions and we prioritize safety above all else,” The Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts posted on Instagram.
The rough weather comes after a day of festival goers braving the heat, checking out the artists, music and food of the annual festival in Baltimore.
The second day of the three-day free celebration of Baltimore’s art scene saw temperatures in the low 90s and a feels-like temperature of 102 degrees. Those temperatures didn’t deter crowds at the festival, which returned after thunderstorms washed out a concert by Grammy winner Chaka Khan on Friday night.
Rain clouds and thunder moved in late Saturday afternoon, with gusty winds forcing some of the vendors and tents to fold up around 5 p.m.
BOPA posted a shelter-in-place advisory for festival goers before ending the festivities for the day.
“We are closely monitoring the weather for Sunday,” BOPA posted on Facebook.
“It just got dark outta nowhere …looks like Artscape bout to get rained on again,” X user Catalina Byrd posted just before 5 p.m. “Yup just heard the thunder.”
“Severe Thunderstorms are approaching Baltimore. If you are at @promoandarts Artscape, take cover!,” X user Andrew Doyle posted moments later.
The Baltimore area was under a severe thunderstorm watch until 9 p.m. Saturday. The rain also brought scattered power outages around Baltimore. BGE reported 721 outages affecting 41,296 customers at 6:45 p.m.
Mayor Brandon Scott posted on X that there were184 roads completely blocked by downed trees Saturday evening.
Earlier in the day, to combat the heat, the festival offered cooling stations, including buses, where people could step into air conditioning.
As Saturday afternoon rolled on, a variety of musical acts took the stage, entertaining festival goers.
But as of midafternoon bright sun and heat were the order of the day.
Artscape, which is scheduled to conclude Sunday, includes shows and a variety of entertainment. It is being held in the Mount Vernon, Bolton Hill, Charles North and Station North Arts districts.
