Weather cancels Nik Wallenda’s drive-in show in Sarasota this weekend

High-wire star Nik Wallenda has bested the Grand Canyon, but he can’t escape the gravity of Florida’s nasty summer weather. After two nights of rain cancellations, the daredevil scrapped the rest of the shows planned for this weekend and instead will move those performances to later this month.

The famed high-wire walker thought he had come up with a novel way to offer live entertainment during the coronavirus pandemic. He put together a drive-in show of stunt performers, from a “human cannonball” to BMX racers, with a fair-like food court delivering orders to cars. It was set to start this weekend at Sarasota’s Nathan Benderson Park.

But then the Florida storms came. On Friday, Wallenda announced that he would nix the rest of the Daredevil Rally Drive-in Thrill Show dates this weekend and instead move the debut to next weekend, June 11-14.

“Given all of the excitement surrounding the opening of the show this weekend, we really tried to wait as long as we could before deciding to postpone,” said Wallenda. “But, the weather forecast is just not promising at all. So, we simply moved this weekend’s shows to June 19-21. Of course, that weekend will include Father’s Day, which will make it that much more special.”

The shows will feature Wallenda and his wife, Erendira, as well as Freestyle motocross jumpers (also known as FMX) and BMX riders, motorcycles in a steel globe, a wheel of steel, and a human cannonball.

Tickets are $20 per person, but there are also family package deals at daredevilrally.com. You can get $1 off per ticket for every can of nonperishable food brought to the event.

Those who purchased tickets for this weekend should call the box office at (941) 870-7444 to reschedule for another show, which will now include the weekend of June 19-21.

A Sarasota native, Wallenda, 41, has walked on a high wire above the Grand Canyon, Niagara Falls and downtown Chicago. He recently walked on a high wire 160 feet above Tampa’s newly remodeled Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. He is the seventh generation of a family with a storied circus history. Best known as “The Flying Wallendas," it all started with his great-grandfather Karl Wallenda, who performed dangerous stunts, often without a safety net.