I have done this! It works out without any hitch.
The only thing is the authors want the first scene in book 1 to be the first moment you start a new cycle.
Presumably the characters have the memories of the night before, so I actually did the whole festival to introduce them to various townsfolk.
Creative Director
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The main reason we start this adventure here (and why we start campaigns like Serpent's Skull, Tyrant's Grasp, Wrath of the Righteous, Skull & Shackles, and more) where we do in cases like this is that we want to set up a particular initial story hook that's captivating and intriguing and different than the old "You all join at the tavern" trope. But setting up situations like this requires us to make choices about PC actions, so that the choices they make put them in the position we want to start a campaign in. By setting these choices and events before the game starts, we don't rob agency in play, and avoid the situation of a player choosing something that would either derail the plot of the campaign or, more often and more dangerous, put them in a situation where they'll have no chance of survival.
It's 100% a narrative choice on how to start the game, and if you know your players and can anticipate their choices and they're cool with potentially having you control the narrative to get to the published adventure's assumed starting point, then adjusting something like this can make your game feel a LOT more interactive and appealing to your group. We as the publishers and creators don't have that luxury, alas, and furthermore what's good for group A might be a gamebreaker for group B.
In this particular Adventure Path, it's so heavy on spoilers and surprises that it's particularly tricky to chat about it in "public" like this on top of all that.