Carla Clark | For The Republic Empty chairs and crews taking down the stage for the rained out Our Hospice concert, Saturday, September 3, 2022.
The feeling of it’s-finally-going-to-happen was drowned in puddles of rain at Mill Race Park Saturday when thunderstorms washed out a chance for locally flavored and nationally touring band Yacht Rock Revue to headline the popular, annual Our Hospice of South Central Indiana fundraising concert.
The band, whose profile is rising steadily amid sellouts of venues ranging from 3,000 to 6,000 seats in major metro areas, was originally set to perform at the 2020 concert before COVID-19 forced the performance to be a streaming show from the Coca-Cola Roxy in Atlanta, Georgia, where the group is based. Then a spike in cases last year triggered a general cancellation.
The free event is the local hospice’s biggest fundraiser of the year, generally raising $120,000 to more than $150,000 from raffle ticket for the nonprofit’s work with patients with life-limiting illnesses.
Columbus native Nick Niespodziani is lead singer and his friend from childhood, Peter Olson, is a singer and instrumentalist with Yacht Rock Revue. The band performed in Nashville, Tennessee, Friday night, and still was in Louisville, Kentucky, Saturday afternoon when they got the cancellation call.
“The swirling hurricane of emotions is heavy,” Niespodziani said. “I’ve been trying to get mentally prepared for this night for a long time – it was going to be so cathartic for me to come home and play the concert that was the BIGGEST deal to me as a kid. Like dreams-come-true kind of vibes.
“With my parents there and teachers and coaches and so many friends coming, I was afraid the emotions might overwhelm me.”
He added that “there really aren’t words to describe the letdown” of the forced cancellation.
The last time rain cut loose at a hospice concert was 2011 when 40 Years of College was playing as the opening band and headliner Grand Funk Railroad was waiting under the park stage near an estimated crowd of 10,000 people. In 2012, a concert with Three Dog Night was moved to the Columbus North High School gym days before the scheduled date when a southern hurricane spawned horrible weather in the Midwest.
A smaller-than-expected crowd of 3,000 attended. That was the last time hospice used a rain location because regulations about inspecting stage set-ups require arrangements made days in advance. It also has had rain insurance in the past to help cover expenses for a cancelled show.
Hospice spokesperson Suzie Singer said there’s no way to immediately estimate how much hospice already has made from incomplete raffle ticket sales, T-shirt sales, cookie sales, and corporate sponsorships.
How you can help
$10 raffle ticket sales for a $10,000 prize will still be sold until 6 p.m. Tuesday at care.ourhospice.org/raffle
