Early Saturday evening, when Manhattan is already brimming with tourists and New Yorkers enjoying the peak of a summer weekend, a blackout hit the city.
Mandatory building evacuations forced hundreds of people onto the street. People had to walk out of Carnegie Hall, Broadway musicals, even a Jennifer Lopez concert.
Then, while the sun set, music began.
The Millenial Choirs and Orchestra was scheduled to play at Carnegie Hall. In the wake of the blackout, they continued their show and captured an audience outside of the theater.
The cast of “Waitress: A New Musical” also kept an audience’s attention, singing to passersby outside.
The “Hadestown” cast brought out a trombone and sang about the blackout, prompting people to dance on the streets.
“Rock of Ages” whipped out a classic.
And the cast of “Frozen” sang into the night.
The blackout may have prompted brief moments of joy and camaraderie, but obviously it wasn’t fun for everyone.
It outage impacted more than 40,000 customers in the city, shutting off street lights and causing major traffic snarls. It also stalled elevators and subway cars.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio (D), who was campaigning for president in Iowa, said he believed a mechanical issue caused the problem.
Con Edison reported that power would be restored to most of Manhattan by midnight.
See what New York’s Great Summer Blackout of 2019 looked like from the streets and above.