The opening weekend of Capital Ex was greeted with a mix of sweltering heat, rain and wind as stormy weather sent people running indoors.
“About 350 days go into planning this event and unfortunately we’re at the whim of weather,” Ken Knowles, president and CEO of Northlands said.
Knowles said that despite some minor damage on site and severe damage at the Indy race site, the situation was looking good with no rides damaged.
“We’re very fortunate … when you have virtually a mobile city set-up and for the most part it stays intact.” he said.
With the winds and rain picking up, the crowds were faced with limited options as Ed Fest, the music festival on the grounds, and rides were shut down.
“Our focus was the safety of the patrons,” he said. “With weather like this everything just shuts down.”
Even with the rain on the weekend potentially pushing people away, Knowles said the line-up and variety could counteract it to attract people back to the grounds.
“There’s always something to do and we hope that people take the opportunity to come back two and maybe three times.”
