Mike Smith, Artesia Daily Press

A downpour in Artesia late Saturday afternoon forced organizers of the Red Dirt Black Gold Festival to call off the music portion of the show.

An Artesia MainStreet spokesperson said the stage and sound equipment was damaged from a thunderstorm that knocked power out to more than 900 persons around 4 p.m. read a statement from Xcel Energy on its website.

“There have been some momentary outages on the transmission system in that area because of the storms,” said Xcel spokesperson Wes Reeves.

Vendors and food trucks for Red Dirt Black Gold would be open for the night and no admission would be charged as gates opened at 6 p.m., per Artesia MainStreet.

The National Weather Service (NWS) issued a flash flood warning for northern Eddy County until 7:15 p.m. Saturday.

An NWS bulletin indicated nearly two inches of rain had fallen in some areas of northern Eddy County around 4:15 p.m. Saturday.