Fifteen minutes before the start of the national holiday show, the organizers were obliged to evacuate the site of the Plaines d’Abraham due to thunderstorms towards Quebec. The event was canceled and a 30-minute condensed, recorded in the afternoon, will be put online and broadcast at 10:30 p.m. on Télé-Québec.
Around 8:42 p.m., the crowd host asked the spectators present on the plains to leave the site calmly. The sky, at that moment, was gray and it did not announce anything beautiful for the show bringing together a panoply of artists, including Claude Dubois, Garou, Marie-Pierre Arthur, Mélissa Bédard, Marie-Denise Pelletier, Ariane Moffatt and Sarahmée.
The Alaclair Ensemble training, which was to open the evening, at 7:30 p.m., saw its show be moved at 8:15 p.m. However, he never started. At 8:24 p.m., stage technicians set plastics to cover music instruments and amplifiers.
There was no question of canceling the show for the moment. Spectators were asked to follow information on social networks.
Pascal Huot – Agence QMI
The sky then opened with lightning, thunder and strong rush of rain. All combined with strong gusts of wind. A watchful monitoring of thunderstorms was in effect since the middle of the afternoon, during a particularly hot and humid day.
At 9:20 p.m., the organizers studied the various scenarios, the possibility of perhaps putting the show on Tuesday. At 10:15 p.m., they confirmed that the show was canceled and that a 30 -minute condensed, which had been recorded, would be broadcast on Monday at 10:30 p.m. and available on the app and on Telequebec. This segment had been recorded in the afternoon due to the high risk of rain.
“We are very saddened by the situation and we apologize for the inconvenience,” the organizers said in a press release issued at 10:30 p.m.
Last year, during the summer festival, on the same plains, the site was evacuated and canceled the Karkwa show. Thirty minutes later, the FEQ changed my idea and decided to present the show anyway and even offer it to those who did not have to leave. A decision that had ignited the social networks of the FEQ.
Pascal Huot – Agence QMI
