Why was Noel Gallagher and Garbage’s High Flying Birds concert canceled in Wisconsin? Refunds & all you need to know

Noel Gallagher and Garbage were supposed to perform at the Breese Stevens Field in Madison, Wisconsin, titled the High Flying Birds, on June 28, 2023. However, the concert was canceled on the morning of June 28, 2023, due to poor air quality in the area owing to the ongoing wildfires in the Canadian wilderness. The cancellation was announced via a post on the official post of FPC Live, the organizer of the Noel Gallagher concert.

“Based on the Public Health Madison & Dane County’s Air Quality Advisory in Madison for Wednesday June 28th, the Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds and Garbage concert at @Breese_Stevens Field originally scheduled for this evening has been canceled," the statement read.

Refunds for the event's tickets will be provided by the ticketing vendors, and a confirmation email providing further details will be sent to ticket holders, according to the statement.

---

Noel Gallagher and Garbage express disappointment at the cancellation

Noel Gallagher reposted the FPC Live Instagram post on his official Instagram post. Meanwhile, Garbage posted a separate Twitter post forwarding the warning and expressing their disappointment at the cancellation of their's and Noel Gallagher's concert. Breese Stevens Fields, the venue of the event, also posted the same message expressing the nature of the situation.

The ongoing Canadian wildfire crisis, that resulted in the cancellation of the Noel Gallagher concert, began early this year. The first recorded fire in the series of wildfires began in March, with over 6.7 million acres of land affected since then in the last count. However, this count is only set to increase as the wildfire progresses.

In an exclusive interview with Al Jazeera, Canadian politician Bill Blair elaborated on the crisis. He said that the conditions so early in the season were "unprecedented."

"Due to climate change, similar extreme weather events may continue to increase in both frequency and severity across our country," Blair added.

The conditions referred to by Bill Blair are the effects of climate change and human intervention in the natural ecosystem of the Canadian wilderness.

Thompson Rivers University member Mike Flannigan explained to CBC Canada that climate change made the conditions needed for wildfire more virulent.

He said that wildfires are usually started due to three reasons. The first one being ignition, either by a human or due to lighting, the second being fuel like dried grass, shrubs, trees, and vegetation, and the third being dry weather.

"As the temperature increases, the ability of the atmosphere to suck moisture out of the fuel increases almost exponentially. Unless you get more rain to compensate for this drying effect from the warming, you end up with drier fuels. And this is a really critical aspect of the fire world," Flannigan noted.

While forest fires form a part of the natural eco-cycle, human intervention has made such fires much more deadly. Due to the close proximity of forests to human habitats and resource extraction processes, fires in current days threaten critical infrastructure and human lives at an exponential threat.

The current poor air quality over parts of the United States and Canada is a result of such a drastic change in the nature of wildfires due to said human intervention. It is something that affects millions of people living in close proximity to wildfire hotspots.