Three New York Festivals Fall to a September Nor’easter

A September nor’easter forced New York to call off three outdoor music festivals on Friday, including Global Citizen’s first washout in 14 years. The National Weather Service in New York, in a 9:32 p.m. discussion on September 25, 2026, called for 4 to 6 inches of rain over Long Island and the city through Sunday, with gusts of 40 to 50 mph and local peaks near 55. All Things Go at Forest Hills Stadium, the Global Citizen concert on Central Park’s Great Lawn, and CBGB Festival under Brooklyn’s K Bridge all pointed to talks with city officials and the safety of fans, artists, and crews.

The cancellations landed after people had already booked travel, and after a year in which storms had already torn up the outdoor calendar. Refunds will move through the ticket sellers. The crews, vendors, and the empty lawns eat the weekend.

Three New York Stages Went Dark on Friday

All Things Go went first. The three-day bill at Forest Hills Stadium in Queens was due to run September 25, 26, and 27, with doors at 2 p.m. on Friday. Organizers said they had consulted local officials, the stadium, and weather advisors, then pulled the entire run over high winds and severe conditions across the New York metro area. Friday’s top line was Zara Larsson, Lola Young, and Rebecca Black, with Larsson booked for her first festival headline. Saturday was built around Brandi Carlile, Ethel Cain, and CMAT. Sunday was MUNA, Carly Rae Jepsen in a sunset slot, and The Beaches.

Global Citizen followed for Saturday, September 26, on the Great Lawn. The nonprofit said it could not safely bring tens of thousands of people, plus artists, crew, vendors, and the rig, onto the lawn. The Central Park Conservancy backed the call, citing attendees and the park itself. The bill was built as a one-night draw: Ms. Lauryn Hill and Wyclef Jean marking the 30th anniversary of The Score, plus Lenny Kravitz, John Legend, Alicia Keys, Victoria Monét, Lainey Wilson, Shaboozey, and TOMORROW X TOGETHER.

CBGB held out longest. The second edition of the festival was due Saturday, September 26, at Under the K Bridge Park in Greenpoint, with a Friday launch by The Prodigy, their first New York City show in 17 years. Organizers had reason to wait. The bridge deck is a windbreak that a Great Lawn and an open stadium do not have. It was not enough. They canceled both nights after consulting local officials, citing forecasted severe weather and high wind. Morrissey was the Saturday headliner, with Interpol, Patti Smith, Mannequin Pussy, Sex Pistols featuring Frank Carter, and The Return of Jackie and Judy also on the bill. Frank Carter’s group had already pulled out of the 2025 edition because of injury.

THE NEW YORK DATES THAT VANISHED

None of the three New York promoters announced a makeup date. Global Citizen said it will return to Central Park next year. The other two left rescheduling unsaid.

Why City Parks Would Not Open the Great Lawn

The National Weather Service New York office called the system an early-season nor’easter and kept a Wind Advisory on most of the area until 6 a.m. Sunday. In the Friday night discussion, forecasters said total rainfall Friday through Sunday looked like 4 to 6 inches across Long Island and NYC, with 1.5 to 3.5 inches farther west. Peak winds were due Friday night through Saturday night. Sustained speeds were pegged at 20 to 25 mph, locally around 35, with gusts of 40 to 50 mph and localized higher gusts nearing 55 mph, most likely on the eastern end of Long Island and along the south shore. Trees still had full foliage, which makes limbs come down at lower speeds once the ground is wet.

THE FRIDAY NIGHT FORECAST

• Rain: 4 to 6 inches over Long Island and New York City Friday through Sunday, 1.5 to 3.5 inches elsewhere.
• Wind: Gusts of 40 to 50 mph, with local peaks near 55 mph on eastern Long Island.
• Peak window: Friday night through Saturday night, then a slow fade through Sunday.
• Coast: Wind Advisory until 6 a.m. Sunday, coastal flood warnings into Sunday evening, high surf and a high rip-current risk.

The Weather Prediction Center, in its 4:03 p.m. Friday short-range discussion, said a rapidly strengthening nor’easter in the western Atlantic would bring heavy rain, wind gusts in excess of 50 mph on eastern Long Island and in southeastern New England, and widespread major coastal flooding through the weekend. That is the map city agencies read when they tell a promoter the Great Lawn is closed. Lightning, the usual festival kill switch, was not the issue. Soaking rain, long-duration wind, and what that combination does to turf, trees, and temporary steel were.

Forecasts predict dangerous conditions and circumstances in which we cannot safely bring tens of thousands of Global Citizens, artists, crew, vendors, partners, and staff onto the Great Lawn, let alone all of the equipment required. Safety has to come first. This is the first time in 14 years we’ve had to cancel. We have spent this week working through countless contingencies, which were ultimately not possible, and cancelling is a decision we have not taken lightly.

Global Citizen, official statement, September 25, 2026

The group posted the same notice on its account that afternoon.

Dear Global Citizens,

Due to the extreme weather forecast for New York City this weekend, we have made the difficult decision, in consultation with the City of New York and NYC Parks,
to cancel this year’s Global Citizen Festival.

Forecasts predict dangerous conditions and… pic.twitter.com/fza9anxU4l

— Global Citizen ⭕ (@GlblCtzn) September 25, 2026

The money the festival exists to lock in was already in. Over the previous six weeks, Global Citizen said people took 3.5 million actions that secured $208.8 million in financial commitments, which the group said will reach more than 9.5 million people. That split is more than 2 million children helped into school and 7.5 million other people, including smallholder farmers, women, youth, and indigenous communities. Ireland and Canada put up $151.6 million of the education piece. The concert was one night. The pledges were not.

The Storm Stopped a Beach Festival Mid-Build

New York was not first in line. On the Maryland coast, Oceans Calling had already lost Friday, September 25, after a week of weather and beach erosion made it impossible to finish the site in time for Dave Matthews Band, Hootie & the Blowfish, and Ludacris. On Friday the National Weather Service shifted the nor’easter farther west. Tides, floods, and high winds then blocked crews from continuing the build, and organizers, following that office and local officials, moved to cancel Oceans Calling 2026 in full. Saturday had been Twenty One Pilots and Gwen Stefani. Sunday had been Mumford & Sons and Matchbox Twenty. Fans who were already in Ocean City were told to stay safe and enjoy the town.

Farther north, Ed Sheeran’s Friday and Saturday dates at Gillette Stadium in Massachusetts were called off on the same forecast. The weekend’s kill chain, in order, was a beach that could not be built, a Queens stadium that would not open its gates, a Central Park lawn the city would not pack, a Brooklyn bridge park that waited and then folded, and a football stadium that would not load in.

THE 48 HOURS THAT EMPTIED THE STAGES

1. September 24, 2026: Oceans Calling in Ocean City, Maryland, cancels Friday after beach erosion stops the build.
2. September 25, 2026: Oceans Calling cancels the rest of the weekend as the storm’s track shifts west.
3. September 25, 2026: All Things Go NYC cancels September 25-27 at Forest Hills Stadium, hours before 2 p.m. doors.
4. September 25, 2026: Global Citizen cancels the Great Lawn show set for September 26, then CBGB cancels The Prodigy and Saturday’s festival; Ed Sheeran’s Gillette dates come off the same board.

The loud problem for people on the ground was not the model run. It was the clock. All Things Go cut a three-day stadium show on the morning it was meant to open. Oceans Calling told a beach town full of ticket holders that the whole weekend was dead. Global Citizen’s own note conceded that fans had booked travel from across the country and around the world. TOMORROW X TOGETHER had come in off Japanese dates for a Saturday that would not happen. A clear Friday sunset still hung over the city for a few hours before the rain bands filled in. By then the stages were already struck, or never finished.

A Year Off for a Storm-Battered Farm

The East Coast washout did not arrive from nowhere. Outdoor festivals spent 2026 losing days, nights, and in one case a whole future edition, to rain and wind. The list is now long enough to read as a working condition, not a fluke weekend.

THE 2026 WEATHER TAB

• Ocean Way: Santa Monica’s inaugural Ocean Way Festival was called off earlier in September after high surf and flooding tied to Hurricane Marie.
• Bonnaroo: Storms hit the 2026 edition in Manchester, Tennessee, including a heavy Sunday rain that emptied parts of the site; on August 21 organizers said there will be no 2027 festival.
• Mid-September: Riot Fest in Chicago, Louder Than Life in Louisville, and Shaky Knees in Atlanta all cut, paused, or evacuated sets because of weather.
• September 25-26: Oceans Calling, three New York outdoor festivals, and Ed Sheeran’s Gillette shows come off the calendar on one nor’easter.

Bonnaroo is the bill that already came due. Organizers said they had spent heavily before the 2026 return, including better drainage, 4.5 miles of new roadways, and 135 acres of new grass, work they said made The Farm more able to take rain. After back-to-back years of storms, they said the main venue still needed to rest. The 2027 festival is off. That is what a weather tab looks like when a promoter stops trying to outbuild it for a year.

Riot Fest, after its own mid-September problems, treated the pattern as climate rather than a bad draw. The New York cancellations do not prove that argument by themselves. They do add a coastal weekend in which city parks, a stadium, a bridge park, and a beach town all reached the same conclusion on the same system.

How Ticket Refunds Work After the Washout

Buyers who used the official sellers get money back without filing a claim, on clocks that stretch into October. All Things Go said AXS purchases made online or by phone will be refunded automatically to the card on file within 30 business days; anyone who bought elsewhere has to go back to that seller. CBGB is on the same AXS track, with other points of sale handled at the original window. Global Citizen said Ticketmaster, its only official partner, will refund purchased tickets to the original payment method in 14 to 21 days, including Instant Win donation tickets, and that transferred tickets refund to the original buyer. People who used points to claim free Global Citizen seats get those points restored, plus three months of Champion status and earlier access to 2027 draws. Donors who paid to secure a seat may take that money back. Oceans Calling said Front Gate Tickets will refund all ticket types automatically in as little as 30 days.

Third-party resale is the hole. Global Citizen warned that tickets bought off Ticketmaster have to be taken up with that seller. All Things Go said the same about non-AXS stock. Promoters do not make those marketplaces whole.

The labor underneath the tickets does not get a 14-day button. Local crews, vendors, and the temporary city that surrounds a Great Lawn or a stadium bowl lose the shift. Global Citizen said food that was due to be served will be donated to New York organizations. That is the surplus. It is not payroll for a lighting rigger who had Friday and Saturday on the books, or for a stall that had already bought ice. The $208.8 million in pledges still stands. The weekend’s wages do not.

Maryland’s Amphitheater Weekend Was Still on the Books

The split that matters for the next booking cycle is not New York versus the rest of the country. It is an open lawn versus a venue that can take weather. As of Friday afternoon, All Things Go left its Maryland edition at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia on the calendar for September 25-27, the festival’s 12th year in the DMV. That bill is not a copy of Queens. Friday was Mitski, Ethel Cain, and Rainbow Kitten Surprise. Saturday was Hayley Williams, MUNA, and Zara Larsson. Sunday was Brandi Carlile and Lola Young. Merriweather is an inland pavilion with a roof over the reserved seats. Forest Hills is an open stadium bowl. The Great Lawn is grass. Under the K Bridge is a park. Ocean City is a beach that was already eroding before the gates were meant to open.

All Things Go posted the New York kill in the same hour fans were still asking whether Maryland would follow.

pic.twitter.com/7ejHnQdo39

— All Things Go (@AllThingsGo) September 25, 2026

The heartbroken line in that notice was for Queens. Maryland was the control case sitting 200-odd miles south, on a different kind of stage, on the same dates. If that pavilion made it through the rain, promoters will read it as a venue lesson. If it did not, the lesson is simpler, and uglier for anyone still selling three-day outdoor weekends in late September.

Global Citizen said it will be back on the Great Lawn next year. The Farm in Tennessee will be empty in 2027.