Conor Oberst on Bright Eyes’ Forest Hills Evacuation: “Still Reeling & Devastated”

Conor Oberst has issued a new statement about Bright Eyes ‘ NYC show at Forest Hills Stadium on Saturday, which was shut down after their first set due to approaching severe weather (the storm impacted Governors Ball and other shows happening outdoors in NYC that night as well). The band are issuing refunds to ticketholders, and say they are “feeling extremely sad, unlucky, maybe even cursed” — the first of their three Wide Awake / Digital Ash shows, at Red Rocks, was also postponed because of weather . Conor writes:

> Hey everyone, We’re still reeling and devastated about the severe weather cancellation at Forest Hills this past weekend. After over a year of planning, it’s been difficult to process our disappointment while also working through next steps. We really appreciate your patience. So, first off – if you purchased your tickets online via AXS, your tickets will be automatically refunded in full, issued to the credit card you used to purchase within 30 business days. No further action is required. Otherwise, please contact your original point of purchase to request a refund. We also want to give a clearer picture of what happened. The storm on June 6 moved in fast and hit hard. It didn’t just affect us – it shut down multiple outdoor shows across the city, including Governors Ball and an event at Under the K Bridge. These kinds of decisions are made in constant real-time contact with meteorologists and city officials, and this one ended up being the worst-case scenario. We were cleared to play our ‘Wide Awake’ set, with the understanding that conditions could change rapidly. And that’s exactly what happened. As we walked off stage, we were told by the promoter and venue that the show had to be shut down immediately due to extreme weather risk for the safety of all. From there, the only focus was getting everyone out safely before conditions got worse. And they did get worse shortly after. For the record, we worked really hard for many months getting these 3 shows together and 2 of the 3 were affected by severe weather completely out of our control. Needlesstosay we are feeling extremely sad, unlucky, maybe even cursed. We lost money on the whole endeavor and worst of all didn’t get to complete what we set out to do. Life isn’t fair. See you down the road, Conor Oberst

The show also streamed live on Veeps , where it’s available to watch on demand. You can also check out our pictures and review .

Conor stuck around NYC on Sunday, where he did a set at an intimate Lower East Side bar .

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_Originally reported by [Brooklyn Vegan](https://www.brooklynvegan.com/conor-oberst-issues-statement-on-bright-eyes-forest-hills-evacuation-were-still-reeling-devastated/)._