London’s 46th Home County Music and Art Festival ends with sunshine after battling extreme heat, storms

Artistic director Tim Fraser says it was another successful year for Home County Music and Art Festival, but wild weather dropped the overall numbers.

“Because of the heat and the tornado warning on Friday our numbers were a little bit lighter than we would have liked to see,” Fraser told 980 CFPL, though he did not have a rough estimate.

On Saturday evening, a thunderstorm prompted the outright cancellation of performances on the main stage.

“You could see the storm kind of rolling in over the bandshell on top of us,” Fraser explained.

“As the storm kind of continued to go there was just a lot of lightning and a lot of high winds and it was a very easy call, it was a difficult decision but it’s a very easy call for us to make to just cancel the concert. Public safety obviously is the number one thing that we are looking out for as event organizers.”

Fraser noted that everyone involved in the 46th edition of the festival acted quickly and professionally to make sure everyone was safe.

By Sunday, the weather had turned around and Fraser says Victoria Park was packed.

“Yesterday the closing date of the festival was absolutely perfect. We barely saw a cloud in the sky. The crowds that we had out yesterday were amazing,” he continued.

“The support from London coming out to the festival this weekend was absolutely incredible and the closing down last night on the main stage was a perfect end to an overall pretty amazing festival.”