Given the circumstances, organizers of Symphony in the Flint Hills have said the Saturday event went extremely well, despite severe weather, and board chair Julie Hower echoed that sentiment on KVOE’s Morning Show on Wednesday.
Hower says about 7,000 people enjoyed the range of activities leading to the concert from the Kansas City Symphony, and things went smoothly until a supercell thunderstorm north of Manhattan changed directions and began moving straight towards Lyon and Chase counties. The symphony was into its third piece when a National Weather Service observer on site said the storm was about two hours away.
Event organizers say they were ready to start evacuations within 15 minutes of deciding to end the show early. Hower says everybody was in their vehicles and starting to clear Irma’s Pasture when the storm hit, bringing strong wind and hail to the scene. Several tents and tables were damaged but nobody was hurt.
Hower says patrons could walk or use wagons to get to their vehicles.
Hower says she is pleased with the event’s emergency operations plan. She also says the situation was quite a bit different from the planned 2019 concert at the same site, when a microburst with winds above 80 mph hit the site the morning of the show, causing it to be canceled.
Hower also announced the 2023 Symphony in the Flint Hills will be in Wabaunsee County at the same site of the planned 2020 concert before COVID-19 canceled the show. More information about the event is online at www.symphonyintheflinthills.org.
