Norman Music Festival, OKC Festival of the Arts close down Saturday due to severe weather

The organizers of the Norman Music Festival canceled the remainder of the three-day event early Saturday afternoon due to the development of severe storms in central Oklahoma.

In downtown Oklahoma City, the Arts Council Oklahoma City, the organizers of the Festival of the Arts, announced at 2:30 p.m. Saturday that the event would close down for the rest of the day "to ensure the safety of all of our guests, vendors and volunteers."

The OKC festival is set to reopen at 10 a.m. Sunday for its final day in and around Bicentennial Park.

Central Oklahoma festivals shut down as PDS tornado watch issued Saturday afternoon

"My morning started with a request to go live on The Weather Channel. And that's never a good sign. ... We all know it's Oklahoma, and we might get to five o'clock and look at sunny skies," said Shari Jackson, executive director of the Norman Music Alliance, the volunteer-run nonprofit entity that produces the festival.

"But we know that people regularly drive two or three hours from all over parts of Oklahoma and beyond to come to the Norman Music Festival, and with headliners like we had this year, we expected people to be driving from even further. On a day where a line of storms was stretching from Texas into Kansas with the potential for tornadic weather, encouraging people to get out and be in the middle of that was not something we felt good doing."

Jackson and the Norman Music Alliance board of directors attended a briefing at 11 a.m. Saturday with the National Weather Service. She said festival organizers were advised of the risk of a "Particularly Dangerous Situation" developing in Oklahoma with "storms that have the capacity for spawning multiple tornadoes."

A PDS tornado watch was issued for central Oklahoma early Saturday afternoon.

With weather closure, Norman Music Festival is done for 2024

The Norman Lions Club's annual carnival, which sets up alongside Norman Music Festival in downtown Norman, was expected to cease operations by 3 p.m. Saturday, Jackson said.

"We had a fantastic Thursday night and unbelievable crowds last night (Friday). We have a feeling a lot of people felt like today might just end up like this," she said. "This morning, we got to have about two hours of our Kids Fest. But all of our outdoors stages were set to start at about 2:30 (p.m.), and rather than have all of those bands, crews and fans drive in ... and then potentially be stuck here in Norman, we decided to be safe."

While the Sooner Theatre and the four NMF outdoor stages were shut down Saturday, Jackson said the 15 businesses that partner with the festival to put on indoor concerts were to make their own decisions on whether to continue with those shows.

Although the festival, which started in 2008, has experienced rain delays before, Jackson said this is the first time NMF has had to cancel a full day of activities due to weather.

Since Norman Music Festival runs Thursday through Saturday, the event is done for 2024.

"These are the kinds of things we know that we deal with from time to time in Oklahoma. And we hate it when it's our turn. But this year, it was our turn. ... 100% we will be back next year," she said.

OKC's downtown Festival of the Arts draws strong morning crowds before weather shutdown

By the time the Festival of the Arts officially opened at 11 a.m. Saturday, festivalgoers were already flocking to the grounds and lining up at Pottery Place.

The wind was brisk, and the skies were cloudy, but sizable morning crowds watched dance groups perform. Hungry attendees lined up at the tents at International Food Row, and artists chatted with potential buyers.

Despite the bustle of the festival, Bicentennial Park was unusually quiet at noon as the Oklahoma City Police Department opted not carry out its usual weekly test of the severe weather sirens due to the forecast.

The winds began to steadily pick up into the afternoon, and at 1:30 p.m., a pop-up shower prompted artists to batten down their tents and festivalgoers to take shelter under the park pavilions and various tents.

Within an hour, festival organizers made the call to close the festival for the day.

Sunday will be the final day of the 58th Annual Festival of the Arts. Hours are 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday at Bicentennial Park, Colcord and Couch drives, and City Hall lawn.

For information and updates, go to https://www.artscouncilokc.com/festival-of-the-arts and https://www.facebook.com/ArtsCouncilOKC.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Stormy weather shuts down OKC Festival of the Arts, Norman Music Fest