Unsettled summer weather puts extra stress on event planners

That scenario played out perfectly in central North Carolina Friday evening, as scattered storms forced the cancellation of a concert in Durham while having no impact on two other events in the area.

Valerie Ward, events and public relations manager for the American Tobacco Campus in Durham, said summertime storms and constantly changing weather put extra stress on event planners and organizers. 

"I spend a lot of times looking at the weather, at weather maps," Ward said Friday after cancelling Friday's Music on the Lawn series that was supposed to feature John Howie Jr. and Rosewood Bluff. "It is extremely stressful, but the safety of the public is first and foremost in our minds."

Two events in Wake County went on as planned Friday evening. Country music fans poured into the Time Warner Cable Music Pavilion to see Rascal Flatts while music and a movie at Koka Booth Amphitheater in Cary went on despite weather concerns. 

A cold front moving into the area on Saturday could continue to cause problems for those with outdoor plans this weekend, WRAL meteorologist Mike Maze said. 

"It's going to be a soggy Saturday," he said. "Our chance for rain at lunchtime will already be around 90 percent and we could see storms throughout the evening hours."