JUST IN: Town of Herndon cancels tonight’s Friday Night Live kickoff

(Updated at 3:25 p.m.) After going virtual in 2020 and facing a budget battle this spring, Friday Night Live! supporters will have to wait one more week to get their live music fix.

The organizing committee behind the annual Herndon summer concert series announced in an email sent to supporters at 2:14 p.m. that tonight’s Under the Covers concert, which was scheduled to kick off Friday Night Live’s 27th season, has been canceled.

In an email sent out just before noon today (Friday), the committee says it was recently made aware that the scheduled concert would be taking place at the same time as a memorial service for the three individuals who were murdered at the Parkridge Gardens apartment complex on June 19.

“Out of respect for the grieving family and their memorial service, we are going to lower and carefully monitor our music volume and speaker positioning this evening,” the committee said in the earlier email. “In addition, we have decided that all tips collected tonight will be directed to the family and survivors.”

However, the Town of Herndon informed the committee “just minutes ago” that the Friday Night Live concert will not go forward as planned.

Here is the full statement from the FNL committee:

We are very sad to share that the Town of Herndon informed us just minutes ago that we cannot hold tonight’s event. We worked very hard over the past 48 hours to find a solution where both events could occur and included a plan to help raise funds for the victim’s family.

We apologize to all our partners (band, sound company, beer supplier, and restaurants) who have worked hard to prepare for tonight including hiring staff, loading trucks, and preparing food. Also to our fans who have made plans to be together with us tonight. Hopefully many of you will instead go to some of our downtown restaurants.

We will work hard to try to make sure that next week’s show featuring Turtle Recall goes on as planned.

We hope everyone has a safe and happy Fourth of July weekend.

FNL! Organizing Committee

The Town of Herndon says in a statement that it decided to cancel the Friday Night Live concert due to limited parking and public safety resources:

The Town of Herndon has made the difficult decision to cancel Friday Night Live for tonight, July 2, 2021. This was not an easy decision to make, however, a funeral for three of our beloved community members who lost their lives through a horrific tragedy is being held in the downtown area at the same time. Due to tremendous community interest and support for the family while they grieve and heal, many resources downtown could become overextended, to include available parking and public safety resources. Please understand that this decision was made with the best interest and safety of our community in mind.

Friday Night Live! will instead kick off on July 9 with Turtle Recall. The concert series will run through Sept. 24.