The New York City concert, which was intended to benefit the Robin Hood Foundation, was delayed for an hour before being canceled altogether because of rain and severe thunderstorms.
- Jun 10, 2011
AceShowbiz - Black Eyed Peas have expressed their regret for having to cancel their Central Park benefit concert on Thursday night, June 9. Shortly after organizers announced they were pulling the plug on the show because of severe thunderstorms, band member Taboo took to his Twitter account and wrote, "Fergie [Stacy Ferguson] is really sorry it's not happening we feel horrible."
In the same tweet, the 35-year-old rapper continued, "We are devastated and Fergie told me to tweet this she loves u all." He later posted another tweet that read, "I hope that the concert will be rescheduled ASAP , our pea-ple deserve it , my peaple from chase and robinhood deserve this NYC we love u."
The scheduled-Thursday concert in Central Park was intended to benefit the Robin Hood Foundation, which fights poverty in New York City. It was scheduled to begin at 5:00 P.M. with performances by Natasha Bedingfield, Tony Bennett, Carole King and LL Cool J. Those acts didn't make it to the stage due to the thunderstorms.
BEP's performance itself was delayed an hour and was rescheduled for 8:30 P.M. Just before 8:00 P.M., concertgoers were finally allowed to enter Central Park's Great Lawn where the concert was to take place. At around 8:15 P.M., however, organizers decided to cancel the show altogether because of the worsening weather.
The last minute cancellation generated apparent disappointment among the BEP's fans. The Wall Street Journal reported that a group of teenagers walking along Central Park West were heard shouting, "Black Eyed Peas suck." Another fan, who took shelter from the rain under a tree by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, said, "If they knew it was going to rain tonight they should have canceled it at 3 P.M."
Meanwhile, the Robin Hood Foundation said in a statement, "The heat wasn't going to stop them, the rain wasn't going to stop them, but the lightning - it stopped them. It came down to safety for everyone. Organizers are hoping to reschedule, so ticket buyers should hold onto their tickets. Robinhood.org will have information in the next week or so."
