FRANKLIN, Tenn. (WTVF) — Outdoor concert venues can be a lot of fun, but not when severe weather strikes. Ever the romantic, when Robert La Prad knew his 53rd wedding anniversary was coming up, he knew just the way to make his sweetie swoon. He bought tickets to crooner, Harry Connick Jr. "I consider him a romantic entertainer, and a lot of the songs I think beat the heart," said La Prad.
Connick was supposed to play under the stars at FirstBank Amphitheater in Franklin, only the stars were blocked by thunderstorms. "By 7:30, it was a torrential rainstorm, lightning, thunder," he said.
When lightning was detected, the venue urged everyone to evacuate. "It was mass exodus of cars leaving the venue," explained La Prad.
A few days later, La Prad started looking into getting a refund. "I had anticipated it was a done deal and we paid for our insurance and that we were going to be covered," he said.
But instead, he got a letter denying his ticket insurance claim from Allianz Global Assistance. Sure enough, when you read the fine print, ticket insurance covers everything from personal injury to surprise jury duty, but not weather cancellations. "I thought it would cover anything or everything," he said.
Then La Prad turned to the company that sold him his tickets, Vivid Seats. Normally, if a concert is canceled due to weather, an automatic refund is issued. But that didn't happen in this case, because the concert wasn't technically canceled. Just before 9 p.m., the venue tweeted out "HARRY WANTS TO PLAY," and that the show was back on at 9:30 pm. But the La Prads never saw it. "We would have probably turned around and went to it, but we didn’t get any sort of communication whatsoever," said La Prad.
The owner of FirstBank Amphitheater told NewsChannel 5 that it's always frustrating when the weather doesn't cooperate, but they won't be issuing refunds because the show went on.
While La Prad was able to salvage the anniversary with a nice dinner, he likely won't get his money back. "It gives me concern and I’m going to be more cautious," said La Prad.
