Current Events : Audience asked to leave tonight's Central Park concert due to severe weather

“We Love NYC: The Homecoming Concert,” the Clive Davis-programmed concert in Central Park, was called off just past its halfway point Saturday due to lightning strikes occurring within a 10-mile radius of the Great Lawn.

Barry Manilow was mid-medley at 8:37 p.m. — with more than two hours left to go in the five-hour concert — when he was interrupted by an announcer saying: “Attention. Please pay close attention to the following safety measures. Due to approaching severe weather, all persons should move quickly and calmly to the nearest exits and proceed to your vehicles and protected areas.”

Cameras on CNN showed much of the crowd reluctantly moving toward exits while others stayed in place, disbelieving the show could really be over without any heavy rain or lightning immediately in the vicinity. However, with some fans refusing to leave, the voice on the PA at the event began declaring that the show was “canceled,” and the grounds were eventually cleared.

“It’s such a shame,” Manilow said in a phone interview with CNN almost an hour after the plug was pulled. “They cut us off and threw us off the stage because they were afraid of lightning. It was getting very dangerous out there.” The singer then cued his music director to play “I Made It Through the Rain” on a keyboard over the phone, as anchor Anderson Cooper waved his arms back and forth.

Cooper told Manilow that he was hearing reports that the concert might resume at 10 p.m., presumably with no crowd — even as Manilow replied that, based on his experience with other rainouts, he felt that was unlikely to happen.