A few weeks ago, a Richmond Free Press letter writer questioned the need for a new amphitheater in the city. In case you weren’t aware, the Allianz Amphitheater at Riverfront is a 7,500-capacity outdoor Downtown concert venue set to open in June.

But back to our reader’s concern — at first, I wondered if they simply weren’t a music fan or felt the city had enough noise already.

However, after giving it more thought, I find myself sharing some concerns of my own.

Recent data indicates a trend of outdoor concerts and festivals being disrupted by extreme weather, a phenomenon that scientists link to climate change. As temperatures rise globally, unpredictable storms, dangerous heat waves, flooding and high winds have forced cancellations, evacuations and, in some cases, resulted in injuries and deaths. In Australia, at least 22 music festivals were canceled or disrupted due to severe weather conditions in 2022 and 2023, compared to only 10 such incidents between 2013 and 2019, according to an article by Milad Haghani at TheConversation.com.

The article also cites similar problems in other countries, including at least 21 cancellations in 2022 and 2023 in the United States. Among the shows that weren’t canceled was an Ed Sheeran concert in Pittsburgh during a heatwave that led to 17 hospitalizations for heat-related illnesses, including two cardiac arrests. In Colorado, a Louis Tomlinson concert was disrupted by a hailstorm that injured more than 100 attendees. The article also mentions the death of a fan from extreme heat during Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour in Brazil in 2023.

The article offers solutions for how existing music festivals and outdoor venues should adopt environmentally safe practices—something the new venue by the river is likely to implement.

While we hope the amphitheater will host many safe seasons of shows, we can’t help but question the wisdom of holding numerous large-scale events outdoors, given the unpredictable nature of today’s weather.

And about those events. It looks like Live Nation, the corporate behemoth behind the project, decided to jump on the anti-diversity bandwagon. The lineup is almost blinding with its whiteness: Little Feat, Kansas, Rick Springfield, Dwight Yokum, Alison Krauss & Union Station, James Taylor, and “Weird” Al Yankovic. The only African American act on the schedule is the R&B trio Boys II Men. While the past few weeks haven’t been kind to R&B icons, I’m confident they can find a few artists who would elevate the new venue and deliver a performance that everyone can enjoy.

As the amphitheater prepares to open, we wonder if Richmond’s new venue will be ready for the unpredictability of the times. With extreme weather events becoming the norm, outdoor concerts have become a risky gamble, one that could lead to canceled shows or worse.

And then there’s that lineup. Live Nation’s choices make it clear they’re not prioritizing diversity — just a bunch of familiar names. Richmond deserves more than that.