What happens when adverse weather cancels an event?

Many event organizers and business owners use weather insurance to protect their event or business.

The idea for this blog popped into my head last weekend while listening to the radio. I was excited to hear some live music from the “When We Were Young” festival out in Las Vegas. That didn’t end up happening, though, because the first day of the two-day festival was canceled because of the threat of high winds.

It was disappointing, but this was definitely the right call. The National Weather Service in Las Vegas forecast the potential of 60 mph wind gusts.

Winds this high could certainly do damage to a stage, if not bring it down, resulting in injuries or even casualties. Major kudos to the event organizers who consulted with the National Weather Service and erred on the side of caution.

The meteorologist in me got to thinking, “boy, I hope they have great weather insurance!” That made me realize many people may not know about weather insurance and what it can be purchased for.

Vendors can take insurance out for almost every kind of weather event you can think of: rain, wind, lightning, snow, thunderstorms, excessive heat and cold, hurricanes, tornadoes, fog and natural disasters.

Weather insurance policies are commonly taken out for concerts, fairs, festivals, parades, sporting events, weddings, film production and seasonal events.

You may be wondering why would someone take out weather insurance. Whether you’re looking to protect an event from lost revenue and/or unrecoverable expenses because of adverse weather or you need to reimburse customers and/or vendors because of adverse weather, weather insurance would fully or partially cover these losses.

In the case of the canceled day of the “When We Were Young” festival, if the organizers had weather insurance for high wind, the policy could recoup losses from ticket sales, vendor fees, parking and payment to musical talent and workers.

While weather insurance may not make sense for every event, it may be something to look into for future events if you’ve never used it before.

Our team of meteorologists dives deep into the science of weather and breaks down timely weather data and information. To view more weather and climate stories, check out our weather blogs section.