TOLEDO, Ohio — Despite local weather advisories and warnings noting that the air quality in Toledo and much of northwest Ohio had reached unhealthy levels Wednesday, many people still came out to the Glass City Metroparks to hear Sunny War perform an outdoor concert.
Several concert attendees looked at the event with a glass-half-full approach.
"It's beautiful, it's warm, just hazy," Cecelia Burton said.
She smiled at how nice the weather was aside from the haze and said it did not bother her senses.
"It's warm and a little smokey, but it doesn't smell smokey," Katie Cappellini said.
Cappellini was at the concert with family and said she works from home, so she hadn't been outside much on Wednesday.
"It's better than not being near the water," Barbara Andrews, who was visiting from California and came to the concert with Cappellini, said.
Andrews said the air quality in Toledo wasn't much worse than back home in California, so she's used to it.
While many were enjoying their time during the less-than-ideal conditions, Cappellini said her husband was not a fan, although he did spend a considerable amount of time outside Wednesday.
"My husband went on a 20-mile bike ride, came home and claimed he just smoked 17 cigarettes by going on a bike ride," Cappellini said. "But he went anyway."
Stephanie Spun and her wife, Lynn Mcnamee, were both some of the few concert attendees wearing face masks.
Spun said she has a chronic lung condition, but regardless of the conditions, she and Mcnamee had no intention of missing the concert. They drove from the Detroit area to be at the event, and they wore masks and practiced social distancing for safety.
"At this angle, if we didn't have the smoke covering the sun, we wouldn't be able to see anything," Mcnamee said. "It's always glass half full."