El Nino Sinks Festival Plan

University of California, Riverside, officials have decided to scrap the annual outdoor Heat music festival held in March, claiming the threat of the largest El Nino event on record makes it too risky to plan and produce the show.

Photo: Darko Vojinovic/AP

A flooded street in Obrenovac, some 30 kilometers (18 miles) southwest of Belgrade, Serbia.

“Significant amounts of rain make any outdoor event, especially an event of this magnitude, difficult if not impossible to produce,” Todd Wingate, assistant dean of students at UCR, told campus newspaper the Highlander.

In March 2014, the Heat festival was canceled due to weather concerns but organizers had already spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay artists and produce the event, the Highlander reported.

The festival was staged earlier this year and drew acts such as Panic! At The Disco and Chance The Rapper. Administrators Nov. 24 voted to allocate additional money for another festival, Spring Splash, but many students still want Heat to return.

Some students upset over the decision have started a campaign online to have Heat rescheduled for later in the year, the paper said.