Ms. Lauryn Hill and Wyclef Jean were booked for Central Park's Great Lawn on Saturday (Sept 26) to play a full set celebrating 30 years of the Fugees' The Score. On the contrary, Global Citizen called off its festival ahead of a nor'easter pushing into the city, the first cancellation in the event's 14-year run.

The forecast called for soaking rain and winds above the 35 mph the stage was rated to handle, and the city's Parks Department made the final safety call. "Safety has to come first," organizers said, adding that they had worked through "countless contingencies" before deciding they could not safely hold tens of thousands of fans, performers, crew and equipment on the lawn. The Great Lawn has weather-related festival history: torrential rain during the 2023 event damaged the grass, forcing its closure until spring 2024.

Refunds for purchased tickets and donations are automatic, and food prepared for the day is going to local organizations. Global Citizen says it will return to Central Park in 2027, and this year's campaign had already secured $208.8 million in commitments for education and vulnerable communities. The bill that washed out also carried Lenny Kravitz, John Legend, Lainey Wilson, Shaboozey, TXT and Alicia Keys & Friends, with Hugh Jackman set to host.

Most of those acts will pass through New York again on their own tours. The Hill and Wyclef pairing is harder to replace, because the only two shows on its books sit on the other side of the country. Resorts World Theatre in Las Vegas has them on Friday, Nov 6, billed as a "one-night-only celebration," and the Hollywood Bowl follows on Sunday, Nov 8.

As of Tuesday (Sept 29), no make-up date in New York or anywhere else on the East Coast had been announced by the artists, Global Citizen or the promoters of the November shows. Global Citizen's pledge to come back next year covers the festival, and no 2027 lineup has been named.

The Fugees came up across the Hudson in New Jersey, and much of The Score was cut at the Booga Basement, a home studio in East Orange, before the album arrived in February 1996. It won the Grammy for Best Rap Album, and "Killing Me Softly With His Song" took Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group With Vocal.

The last Fugees reunion tied to Global Citizen happened a few miles south of the park. On Sept 22, 2021, Hill, Wyclef and Pras Michel played the Rooftop at Pier 17 for their first show together in 15 years, walking out near 10 p.m. Their "Ready or Not" from that night aired on the Global Citizen Live broadcast that weekend. Hill used part of the roughly 45-minute set to tell the crowd to "respect the miracle of this union."

That rooftop show was supposed to launch the Diaspora Calling tour, a 12-date run that included Newark along with Chicago, Atlanta, Miami, Washington, Paris, London and stops in Nigeria and Ghana. The Newark date was pushed to March, and in January 2022 the group canceled the whole tour, citing the pandemic.

The next attempt rode along with Hill's 25th anniversary shows for The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, which brought the Fugees back on the road in 2023. At one New Jersey stop that year she reached the stage about two hours late. In August 2024 the North American leg was scrapped days before its Tampa opener, and Hill blamed "sensationalism and clickbait headlines" for soft ticket sales as UK and European dates went ahead.

Pras was convicted in 2023 in a federal case over foreign money in U.S. politics and was sentenced in November 2025 to 14 years in prison. The Las Vegas and Hollywood Bowl dates are billed under Hill's and Wyclef's names rather than as the Fugees.

In June, at the BET Awards, Hill received the inaugural Living Legend Icon Award. Nas, Doechii, SZA, Tems, Queen Latifah and her own children worked through her catalog before she closed the tribute with a live "Ex-Factor."

Global Citizen's free tickets are earned by taking actions on the group's campaigns, so many of the fans holding passes for Saturday had signed petitions and sent emails to get onto the lawn. The nearest confirmed chance to hear Hill and Wyclef run through The Score together is the Resorts World stage in Las Vegas on Nov 6.