Garbage and Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds were forced to cancel the Wisconsin concert they were set to co-headline on Wednesday due to poor air quality in the region as hundreds of wildfires in Canada continue burning.
Citing an air quality advisory for Madison and Dane counties, "the Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds and Garbage concert at Breese Stevens Field originally scheduled for this evening has been canceled," a post on Gallagher's Instagram page read on Wednesday.
"We are absolutely gutted to disappoint you all but your safety is paramount," Garbage frontwoman Shirley Manson posted on the band's Instagram page on Wednesday, adding "this is essentially our hometown show - even for me it is my American hometown show - and I cannot underscore how crushed we all are about this rather alarming turn of events."
Both posts stated that ticket holders will be refunded at their point of purchase and will receive an email with refund information.
The concert cancellation comes as more than a third of the US population is under air quality alerts, covering more than a dozen states from the Midwest to the East Coast, as smoke from Canadian wildfires sweeps across parts of the United States. Some of the worst air quality, which is classified as "very unhealthy," is centered over the Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit and Indianapolis metro areas.
Poor air quality has prompted officials to call on the public to take safety precautions just weeks after similar wildfire smoke blanketed the Northeast.
Earlier this month, "Killing Eve" actor Jodie Comer stopped a matinee of the Broadway play "Prima Facie," in which she stars, when she had difficulty breathing due to poor air quality in New York City at the time, according to a representative for the show. The city was blanketed in a smoky orange haze at the time, also the result of Canadian wildfires.
CNN reported on Wednesday that some improvement in the air quality is expected on Thursday, particularly over the Great Lakes area, where rain and storms will help cleanse the air.
