Fans irate after Lindsey Stirling concert canceled — with no warning

Lindsey Stirling’s concert at Northerly Island has been rescheduled again — but this time fans are upset they were given literally no warning about the change.

Stirling’s original concert date was Aug. 10 of last year, but that show was postponed to Tuesday due to the pandemic.

Her concert, part of her Artemis tour, was advertised as starting at 7 p.m. But shortly after 2:20 p.m. Tuesday, ticket holders were sent an email saying gates would now open at 6:30 p.m. and the concert would start at 8:30 p.m.

As a line of storms developed to the west of the city, ticket holders were sent another email alert. Now, the concert’s start time was listed as 7 p.m. There was no mention of the weather forecast or any reason given for the change.

Around that time, Stirling’s Twitter account retweeted a tweet from Huntington Bank Pavilion about the show. Her tweet noted, “See you tonight at 7 p.m.”

However, as fans showed up, staff started telling folks outside the show was being rescheduled due to weather.

No email or communication went out, though, until 7:30 p.m.

“Your safety is our first priority. Due to pending inclement weather in the area, we are rescheduling tonight’s concert,” the venue tweeted.

Stirling retweeted that post — and deleted her earlier tweet.

There were no signs erected outside, so some fans complained they paid to park before they learned what happened.

At that time there was no band equipment on the stage — leading many to wonder why they weren’t given more notice.

“Not like you saw this line of storms coming since 3 p.m.” one fan tweeted. Wrote another: “Not sure why it took so long to get this announcement out. We knew about this 30 minutes ago. Surely you knew before we did?

“Everybody found it frustrating,” said Natalia Hofmann, who lives downtown. Hofmann said her sister drove in with her niece from the south suburbs.

Her niece, who also plays the violin, “was devastated,” she said.

However, the three plan to attend the rescheduled show on Aug. 20.

Representatives of Lindsey Stirling referred questions to Live Nation, which runs the pavilion.

A Live Nation spokeswoman did not address the changing start times for the concert or the late cancelation of the event after the scheduled start.

“We evacuated due to weather and rescheduled the show to Friday, August 20,” she said in an email.

Tuesday’s tickets will be honored for the upcoming show. Live Nation is offering refunds to those who can’t make it.

Contributing: Nichole Shaw