Thursday Night Live was canceled for June 7 due to bricks falling from a building near the stage in downtown Jefferson City.
The Jefferson City Fire and Police departments deemed the law office building at the corner of Madison and East High streets unstable after several layers of bricks fell from the building Thursday morning, near the Thursday Night Live stage. Law firms Berry Wilson LLC and Turnbull & Stark LLC are housed in the 200 E. High St. building and were evacuated.
No one was injured and none of the Thursday Night Live equipment was damaged, event director Jill Snodgrass said.
"(The bricks) just collapsed," Snodgrass said. "The building is unstable, so they're just not sure what the deal is with it, so better be safe than sorry."
The fire and police departments sectioned off the area around the building and put up traffic cones to help guide downtown traffic. Throughout the day, downtown visitors, business owners and employees stood on a nearby street corner, taking photos and video of the damaged exterior wall.
Snodgrass said they won't be able to move the stage for "quite some time," but she did not know how long it would remain there.
Thursday Night Live organizers could not move the June 7 event to a different location, she added.
"It's logistically not possible because we don't have a stage and that building contains the power for the stage," Snodgrass said. "We don't have street closures for, say, (East) Capitol Avenue, for example. We certainly looked through every single possibility to try to come up with a solution."
Bands Brad & Charity and JC/DC were set to perform at Thursday evening's event, which also was to feature a Salute to America preview. The bands relocated their Thursday night sets, with JC/DC playing at The Bridge on East Capitol Avenue and Brad & Charity playing at Sweet Smoke BBQ on East High Street.
Participating bars and restaurants later planned specials and other live music to help make up for the lost entertainment draw, Snodgrass said.
"Every time we are not able to have a Thursday Night Live, definitely all the downtown businesses, the bars and the restaurants suffer," she said. "So we feel for them, and it's a big hit for Thursday Night Live because it's a not-for-profit event. We count on every single dollar from wristband sales and everything to make the event break even."
Each Thursday Night Live event sells an average of 1,300 wristbands for people over 21 to be able to purchase alcoholic beverages, Snodgrass said.
"As to finances, we didn't just lose what we normally get at the gates," she said. " ... We also lose all the funds invested in the production and entertainment and other fixed costs. It's very difficult to deal with a shutout, no matter what the cause."
Snodgrass said next week's Thursday Night Live event will happen no matter what, as organizers would create a contingency plan for where to relocate the stage if needed.
Building inspectors were unable to access the entire building Thursday due to safety concerns, so they will inspect the building once it is secured, Jefferson City Building Official Larry Burkhardt said.
"There wasn't a definitive cause for the failure," Burkhardt said. "Nothing hit it, so something inside the building had to shift and push the bricks out."
City staff placed small barricades around the area Thursday.
Building owner Andrew Neidert did not return a request from the News Tribune for comment.