Hometown Holidays: Big Turnout, One Big Rain Out

went off without a hitch—save for one big cancellation called in by Mother Nature. 

Sunday’s headlining concert by Easton Corbin was called off shortly before the rising country star was to take the stage as city officials tracked a line of severe thunderstorms—first by radar and then by scanning the horizon.

“When we’re monitoring thunderstorms we’re very careful because we have a lot of people outside, including under a steel-framed tent,” said Burt Hall, the City of Rockville’s director of recreation and parks. 

The Corbin cancellation was the second time in two years that Hometown Holidays’ original headlining act had to be canceled. Last year,  after Clinton fell ill just before the holiday weekend. Festival organizers scrambled and were able to secure blues artist Taj Mahal to fill the bill.

This year's Sunday night openers, rock act Sons of Bill, played their whole set before the storm arrived. 

“The whole weekend long we lost one act,” Hall said. “We’re real sorry that we lost Easton Corbin.”

City officials estimated that about 60,000 people attended the three days of festivities, which included Monday's Memorial Day parade. Crowds were typical of recent Memorial Day weekends.

“We had nice crowds,” Hall said. “It was hot, so the middle of the day was a bit slow, particularly on Sunday.”

The Taste of Rockville did well, crafters selling their art were kept busy and there were “lots of smiling faces,” he said.

Watching the skies

Storms that festival organizers monitored throughout Saturday eventually dissipated and that night’s entertainment—with —went on as scheduled.

On Sunday, around 8 p.m. a line of storms turned south and started bearing down on Rockville, traveling about 25 mph through Frederick, Hall said.

“There were giant red cells that were coming right at us,” he said. “By 8:15 p.m. you didn’t need to look at your little phone screen to tell a storm was coming.”

Just as Mayor Phyllis Marcuccio and the City Council were walking up the stage stairs to introduce Corbin, organizers asked the emcee to make an announcement that the free show had been canceled and that the audience should take shelter, Hall said.

“And if you don’t believe it, turn around,” the emcee told the crowd, according to Hall.

“We think we did it in enough time for people to get to their cars,” Hall said.

Festival organizers have plans for weather emergencies, he said. They included folding up tents that weren’t heavily anchored and chairs that could be blown by strong winds.

“In the two hours before we shut the event down we were doing prep in case we got hit,” Hall said.

City police cruisers, lights flashing, were stationed at major intersections, where perimeter barricades were blown down in some cases, Hall said.

A cruiser also was stationed near craft tents where artisans were packing up.

“We did the very best we could to get people to stop standing out in the middle of the parking lot and under a tent or under a tree,” Hall said.

At 8:10 p.m., the Alert Rockville notification system relied a message to subscribers that the National Weather Service had issued a severe thunderstorm warning for Montgomery County.

"Significant cloud to ground lightning is occurring with this storm ... Residents are urged to seek safe shelter indoors until the storm passes and remain alert for any additional warnings," the alert said.

The storm arrived about 8:15 p.m., bringing with it big wind gusts for a short time, followed by lightning. The lightning moved out of Town Center by about 9:30 p.m.

The storm, while it didn’t pack the punch that forecasters warned it could, was “intense enough and [there was] enough lightning around that there was no question that we made the right decision,” Hall said.

Sometimes canceling an event is a tough call for organizers, Hall said.

“In this case there was no second-guessing,” he said.

Reasons for caution

Hall recalled a Hometown Holidays years ago when a bolt of lightning hit about 200 yards from where he was standing in a parking lot.

“I felt it,” he said.

While the strike occurred at a slow time for festival attendance, Hall said the experience taught him that the old axiom of determining how close lightning is by counting the seconds between when you see lighting and when you hear the thunder is “completely false.”

“If you can see lightning anywhere from where you are, it could hit you right then,” he said.

Two recent incidents highlight the dangers of the wind and lightning generated by severe summer storms. In August, high winds toppled a stage at the Indiana State Fair, killing seven.

Hall said the incident highlights the need to get people out of harm’s way when severe weather approaches an outdoor gathering.

“The stages we use are very robust and they have multiple redundant structural members,” he said. That said, “I can’t say couldn’t be blown down if a hurricane came in.”

Carl Henn, a popular Rockville activist and City Council candidate, was killed when he was struck by lightning in King Farm in July 2010.

“It’s a very common human foible to think it’s not going to happen to me, but it does and it has,” Hall said.

Corbin come back?

On Sunday, people came “from far and wide” to see Corbin, Hall said.

“We had people who clearly were disappointed that we had to cancel, but understood why we did,” he said.

“Bring Easton back soon!” Allen Popels wrote on the city’s Hometown Holidays Facebook page.

The city could look into bringing Corbin back, Hall said, recalling the city’s attempt to bring back an opening act that was rained out. After the act was rained out two more years in a row, the city finally gave up, Hall said.

Other factors could conspire against a return to Rockville for Corbin. The country artist’s star is on the rise, with his 2010 self-titled debut album producing two No. 1 singles on Billboard's country chart: "A Little More Country Than That" and "Roll With It." His sophomore album is due out later this year.

By the time it is released, “he could be way out of our price range,” Hall said.

Country star Martina McBride once played Hometown Holidays for about $35,000, Hall said. Then, she won a couple of Grammy Awards.

“Once you win your Grammy, your price goes up by a factor of 10,” Hall said.