Live on the Green Canceled for 2023, Expected to Return in 2024

Founded in 2009 and presented by preeminent local independent radio station Lightning 100, free, annual, all ages music fest Live on the Green has long been an yearly favorite of ours, showcasing incredible local and national talent across several days (initially, across several weeks) in Public Square Park. Like all festivals, LOTG was canceled in 2020, pivoting instead to an inventive virtual format, and, also like many other fests, wasn’t ready to bounce back in 2021, finally making its return last year with a slight format tweak, shifting the event (which, originally, took place across six Thursdays, then had condensed to just a few weeks with a long weekend finale) to one extra-long Labor Day Weekend fest.

We expected 2023 to be businesses as usual once more, as LOTG was, pre-Covid, one of the most dependable festivals we looked forward to each year, but, unfortunately, the event’s producers have just announced that LOTG has been canceled this year due to “cost and demands… too great for us to deliver the same quality experience.” It’s hugely unfortunate news, but we’ve always marveled at how something so big and with so many huge artists could work as a free fest, and we also understand the difficulty in losing momentum after being forced to take time off.

In the same statement, Lightning 100 president and LOTG executive producer Lester Turner promises that “this is not the end of Live on the Green” and that they are “regrouping with the plan to return even stronger in 2024,” which gives us some reassurance. Read the entire statement below:

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We truly can’t express how impactful Live on the Green has been to the local music scene and to our site, as we’ve been covering it each year for as long as we’ve existed. Here’s hoping we’ll see the fest back in Public Square Park in 2024, better than ever (and, if we’re making a wish list, perhaps spread out across a few weeks once again)! Revisit last year’s LOTG below.