SummerStage halted Colombian superstar Juanes' concert on Wednesday evening while he was performing his second song, citing concerns over excessive crowds.
The abrupt end was the first time in the annual summer series' 30-year history that a performance had to be stopped for a nonweather related reason, Heather Lubov, executive director of the City Parks Foundation, said in a statement. The foundation is the nonprofit organization that organizes the free concerts throughout the city's five boroughs.
“The Juanes show at SummerStage in Central Park drew a capacity crowd of 5,000 attendees inside the venue with an estimated overflow of 12,000 additional fans outside the gates,” Lubov said.
“During the performance of his second song, with continued crowds at the gates and out of an abundance of caution, the show was halted and fans were asked to leave the venue.”
The show was put on in partnership with the Latin Alternative Music Conference (LAMC).
Fans of the beloved singer-songwriter expressed their disappointment on social media.
“Very disrespectful of @SummerStage to end @JUANES' concert in Central Park after 2 songs because they underestimated the amount of Latinos that would show up to this free concert,” one fan tweeted. “Like c'mon, he's an international legend.”
“You can't just have a free event for someone like @JUANES and not expect an insane turnout. It should've been a lottery system to avoid the crowd. It was scary!” another tweeted.
Representatives for City Parks Foundation could not be reached for further comment Thursday. According to Lubov, “SummerStage, LAMC and Juanes all agreed that the safety of fans and concert goers was of paramount concern and at the request of the NYPD, made the decision to cancel the show.”
Juanes addressed the incident on social media, writing in Spanish that he was sad the performance could not be continued, but that the security of his fans always comes first. He said he hoped to see the fans soon.
The rock star's latest and tenth album, "Vida Cotidiana," was released in May and, as its Spanish title suggests, grapples with navigating “day-to-day life concerns” in a post-pandemic world including love, marriage and family, according to a SummerStage biography.
Juanes told Rolling Stone in a May interview that he felt liberated on this project.
“There’s no weight on me. When you make songs now you have to do reggaeton and have an established structure and if you break away from that, it’s very hard," he said. "I didn’t follow that path, I let it come from my soul."
