An influence outage on Saturday night silenced a classic rock concert on the Toyota Pavilion in Concord, featuring headliners Styx and Foreigner, in front of an audience of about 9,500 people before they might really rock out.
The outage was reported to Pacific Gas & Electric at 6:39 p.m. According to PG&E, greater than 1,500 people in the world are affected by the outage. Several areas in Concord and North Clayton were affected, including quite a few areas around Kirker Pass Road, Concord Boulevard and Bailey Road.
PG&E estimates power will likely be restored by 4:45 a.m. Sunday. The explanation for the outage remains to be under investigation.
The show was scheduled to start at 6:45 p.m. with a gap number by John Waite, but was stopped before anyone could proceed. At 8:00 p.m., the concert was canceled, with no word on whether the concert could be rescheduled or if concertgoers would get their a refund. With no power or public address system, word spread very slowly across the venue.
Aaron Hawkins, manager of the venue, announced the interruption to the audience amid some boos. He explained that the unique intention had been to placed on the show anyway.
“We'll get through this as long as we can. Let's all keep our fingers crossed. Please be patient,” Hawkins said.
Dan Yorke of Walnut Creek said he got here to benefit from the music he grew up with.
Given the timing of the outage, Yorke was not optimistic that the issue could possibly be fixed quickly. He said PG&E could have “a skeleton crew” working to resolve the issue.
Jim Service of Pleasant Hill, who attended the concert along with his wife Michelle, said he wondered why they hadn't been higher prepared for a possible power outage.
“You would think that a venue like this would have backup generators for something like this,” Service said.
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