NORTH ADAMS -- The 17th annual Downtown Celebration, which was scheduled for tonight, will now be held Thursday from 5:30 to 9 p.m.
City officials announced the change Tuesday morning, citing weather forecasts calling for thunderstorms throughout today as the reason for postponing the event.
"This is just too big of an event to cancel on the morning of," Mayor Richard J. Alcombright said Tuesday. "I called John Hockridge first thing [Tuesday morning] and told him I was concerned about [Wednesday] night. He said the forecasts were going to hold pretty true. Besides the Fall Foliage Parade, this is truly the biggest single event the city holds and there is a lot of planning that goes into it."
According to the National Weather Service in Albany, N.Y., today’s forecast calls for a 70 percent of thunderstorms throughout the day, with a 60 percent chance of thunderstorms in the evening.
"If we were talking about a 20 to 30 percent chance of rain, the celebration would still be on," the mayor said. "After talking with John, Thursday really is supposed to be a better date. I do want to apologize to our friends at WNAW and WUPE, who have been such great partners in providing the ‘Party in the Park’ series, as the celebration will now take place at the same time as their event. This is a huge event for us, and we just had to move it."
Party in the Park, held at Noel Field, will feature the country
However, Alcombright said after talking with the Veronica Bosley, the city’s director of tourism and community events, there is still "good news" -- the rain date shouldn’t hamper the celebration.
"Virtually everyone who planned to participate [today] is planning to participate on Thursday," he said. "Everything should go as planned."
However, the Art About Town painting on Holden Street has been canceled. According to Phil Sellers, of Art About Town, the painting of a large geometric painting on the street could potentially take place Thursday, Aug. 30, as part of the next DownStreet Art celebration.
To reach Jennifer Huberdeau, email jhuberdeau@thetranscript.com.
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