Harvey Cancels Lake Anne Jazz Festival

RESTON, VA — Lake Anne Plaza was supposed to be the center of fun and music on Saturday afternoon and into the evening, but then Harvey decided to ruin it.

The remnants of the devastating category 4 hurricane that slammed the coast of Texas and dropped more then four feet of rain on the Houston area has found its way to northern Virginia, where it is currently dropping its last little bit of moisture on us before it dissipates entirely.

The jazz and blues festival lineup at Lake Anne Plaza included eight acts to perform between 1-9 p.m. Saturday. It would have been the 11th year of the free music festival.

Unfortunately, and with heavy hearts, organizers had to cancel it.

"Due to declining weather conditions due to Harvey's remnants making its way here tomorrow, we've made the very painful decision to cancel the Jazz & Blues Festival for 2017," Maurisa Potts, spokeswoman for the event, said in a statement. "This has been a tough decision to arrive at but in the end we think this is the best thing to do. We did look at the possibility of shifting the event to Sunday but the logistics of that are not surmountable both in terms of permit limitations, (ABC Licenses, County Permits, Fire Marshall, etc.) equipment rental and musician schedules.

"This is only the 1st time in 11 years that we've actually canceled the festival so the Labor Day weekend has been good to us," she added. "Thank you for your support and I would appreciate it if you could editorially spread the word ASAP. We look forward to the planning of the 2018 Labor Day festival."

Image via NOAA