The Austin Area Commission for the Arts made the best out of a soggy situation last Saturday.

As the Dick Schindler Celebration Concert, the third annual concert in Marcusen Park during the Austin ArtWorks Festival, was about to start, organizers checked the radar to find a rainbow of storm activity coming their way.

Reluctantly, organizers canceled so the company that brought the stage could get electronic equipment packed up before the storms could damage the equipment.

But organizers deserve credit for just not going home and licking their wounds. After canceling the outdoor concert, people got busy calling around to find a place for the bands to play.

The solution was Dusty’s Lounge. Alex Rossi would play a solo set, followed by a Marty O’Reilly & the Old Soul Orchestra set.

“With the help of a few ambitious people we put this together and we all came down to play some music,” O’Reilly told the crowd.

Everyone who helped out deserves a tip of the cap — the folks at Dusty’s for being open to taking it on with almost no planning, the bands for being willing to shift to a smaller venue, the fans for stopping out, the organizers for quick thinking, and especially to the folks who brought out amps and instruments to help.

A downtown bar was far from a perfect Plan B. It automatically nixed anyone younger than 21 from attending. The Austin High School Jazz Band members, who played about 20 minutes at Marcusen before the storms neared, couldn’t attend the show, nor could several younger members of the Schindler family who were at the park.

While it wasn’t ideal — and no Plan B ever really is — it was a far better option than packing up and going home.

With Austin High School’s Knowlton Auditorium under construction and the Paramount Theatre in use for the Matchbox Children’s Theatre production of “The Wizard of Oz,” options for a rain backup were limited.

Even if organizers had secured a weather backup ahead of time, there’s no telling how well it would have worked. Much of the equipment was rented and out of commission when the rental company packed up.

For an impromptu show in a bar, the acoustics were surprisingly sharp, and the crowd seemed to enjoy the show, even cheering an encore of O’Reilly & the Old Soul Orchestra.

Perhaps it’d be a good idea to have a larger storm location secured ahead of time for next year, but on Saturday, everyone made the best of a difficult situation.