Governors Ball Saturday (more by Amanda Hatfield)

Gothamist reports:

"There are conflicting reports about a partial stage collapse on Randall's Island this afternoon, injuring those who were disassembling it following this weekend's Governors Ball rock festival. EMT Jason Rabinowitz, the director of field operations and special events for First Response Ambulance, confirmed that he is responding to a report of the collapse. "They were taking down the stage, and were about halfway up when the bottom half gave way they fell about 6 to 8 feet," Rabinowitz tells us. "It was four people total. Two of them refused medical treatment, one of them is saying they have back pain and the other has a possible fracture in their arm."

An FDNY spokesman didn't have any information on the collapse, and a spokesman for Governors Ball denies there has been a stage collapse, "or anything close to it." We'll update with more information as it becomes available."

Luckily, if true, it doesn't sound too bad. A Radiohead stage collapse in Toronto recently killed a man, injured three others, caused the cancellation of the show, destroyed equipment, and caused a Radiohead tour postponement.

UPDATE from the Governors Ball publicist: "To call it a stage collapse is extreme. At approximately 4 pm, while disassembling the stage, 8 stage hands were carrying a truss by hand, to be loaded off the deck, when a portion of the deck shifted, causing one stagehand to fall. He broke his fall with his wrist and has been transported to the hospital for xrays. As a precautionary measure a second stagehand, complaining of lower back pain was also transported for examination."

Our Governors Ball photos from Saturday are HERE. Sunday is on the way.

Bird's eye view of the scene

Rest in peace to Drum Tech Scott Johnson of South Yorkshire in the UK, who passed away at the age of 33 due to injuries sutained at the recent stage collapse in Toronto.

A relative confirmed the death of Mr Johnson, from Doncaster, who worked for other British bands, including Keane.

Police in Toronto said the stage was being set up on Saturday when the top part of it collapsed on top of him.

The Foreign Office confirmed that Mr Johnson's family had been notified.

Three other people were injured, one seriously, in the incident at Downsview Park, medical officials said.

The band, from Oxfordshire, south-east England, were not on stage at the time and the sell-out concert was cancelled. A message on the band's website said the gig had been cancelled due to "unforeseen circumstances". -[BBC]

Our hearts go out to Johnson's family.

Downsview Park post-collapse (via @Jip88)

A stage at Toronto's Downsview Park has collapsed in advance of a scheduled Radiohead concert, killing one person and injuring at least three, one seriously.

Calls came in to emergency crews at about 4 p.m. ET and at least one ambulance was already on site. One person was declared dead at the scene, one was transported to Sunnybrook Hospital in serious condition and two others were treated for minor injuries and released.

The 7:30 p.m. concert is cancelled, and Radiohead's official Twitter feed advised fans not to make their way to the venue. [CBC]

If there's a bit of a bright side, the venue wasn't open yet and could have been much worse.

The Belgian music festival Pukkelpop Festival was hit with a severe storm today, which appears to have hit during or around the time of the Smith Westerns' set. Frontman Cullen Omori intially tweeted "Stage collapsed max almost got crushed by the tress. I hope pukkelpop has insurance bc all our shit is broke," but has since deleted it and followed up with, "Apologize to anyone who mistook tweet. Wrote direclty after running off stage. Just found out the extent of damage. All of prays go out to those hurt."

According to the Associated Press:

A storm swepts through an open air music festival in eastern Belgium on Thursday killing at least three people and injuring over 70 others, an official said.

Video from the site showed stage equipment dangling in high winds near the town of Hasselt, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) east of Brussels, as rain-soaked concertgoers at the Pukkelpop music festival ran for cover .

More than 20 ambulances were dispatched to the festival ground outside of Hasselt, a small town in eastern Belgium.

Hugo Simons, Hasselt's head of emergency planning, told VRT radio that 11 people were severely injured while 60 sustained light injuries as a result of the storm.

Hilde Claes, Hasselt's mayor, said those injured are taken to several nearby hospitals. Some of those lightly injured were being treated at a local sports complex.

Chokri Mahassine, the organizer of the festival, said "we have for now put the festival on hold until we understand the situation completely."

Dutch NOS television reporter Rick Hoogkamp, who was attending the concert, said the sky got dark, winds picked up violently and hailstones pelted those gathered.

He said several tents collapsed. Images of the disaster also showed fallen trees and fallen lighting scaffolds.

The festival's website lists a number of stages where concerts and performances were to be held during the three-day event, which started Thursday. Reports say some 60,000 people are attending the event. [ABC/AP]

All details are still not known and are being updated frequently as the news learns more details. Other bands scheduled to play the fest today are/were Foo Fighters, Thirty Second to Mars, Fleet Foxes, James Blake, The Streets, Chromeo, Battles and many more.

Stories like this are sadly and frighteningly becoming a common thing, seeing as a stage collapsed at Ottawa Bluesfest during Cheap Trick (who coincidentally play Brooklyn tonight), another one collapsed at Indiana State Fair, a camera boom fell during OMD's SXSW show, and The Flaming Lips experienced a similar disaster at the Brady District Block Party in Tulsa, OK earlier this month.

Update: the Smith Westerns issued a follow-up statement.

Our condolences to the family and friends of those who lost their lives and to the injured in Belgium. A video about the incident is at ABC's website, and there's two that showed up on Youtube already, below...

Continue reading "storm causes fatal disaster @ Pukkelpop Festival in Belgium"

The Indiana State Fair reopened Monday with a public memorial service for five people killed when a concert stage collapsed during a storm.

The fairgrounds were closed Saturday night following the accident, which occurred shortly before the country music duo Sugarland was to take the stage before an audience of about 12,000.

"While we will never forget this horrific event and those who perished, may we Hoosiers find the courage to unify, rebuild and re-emerge with a stronger heart," said Indiana first lady Cheri Daniels, who attended Saturday's concert and was one of several speakers at Monday's ceremony.

Audience members at the service honored victims with a moment of silence and later sang "Amazing Grace."
Officials Monday were focusing on grieving with victims and beginning repairs to get the fair back underway, Gov. Mitch Daniels told CNN.

"Our first instinct in Indiana is not to go rushing around, looking for scapegoats. It's to take care of business, take care of those who've been hurt and then, of course ... study to see if something could have done better and learn any necessary lessons," he said.

On Sunday he described the stage's collapse as a "freakish accident."

"I'm not saying that we're not going to find many things that could have been done differently," Daniels told CNN Monday. "I'm only saying that I know the people who run this operation. They think safety all the time, and I know that their hearts are broken that, in this case, this event took place as it did." [CNN]

Video of the tragic stage collapse, and of the press conference that happened on Sunday, below...

Continue reading "5 dead from stage collapse @ Indiana State Fair (which reopened today with a memorial service)"

A strong downward burst of wind is believed to have led to the collapse of the main stage during a performance Sunday night at Ottawa Bluesfest.

Though not an official finding, Environment Canada said they are fairly confident a downburst was the trigger for the collapse of the main stage 20 minutes into a performance by Cheap Trick.

A downburst is a particularly strong downdraft of air from a thunderstorm that spreads out in all directions when it hits the ground and can potentially cause as much damage as a tornado. Thunderstorms with wind gusts up to 96 km/h began around 7:30 p.m. ET and continued on and off through the evening.

Cisco Ottawa Bluesfest executive director Mark Monahan is set to hold a news conference 11 a.m. ET to discuss the stage collapse that sent three people to hospital and thousands fleeing for cover. [CBC]

Videos below...

Continue reading "stage collapse during Cheap Trick @ Ottawa Bluesfest (video)"

Big Valley Jamboree - sunny on July 31, 2009 (Taylor and Kevin)

Big Valley Jamboree - knocked over toilets on August 1, 2009 (Taylor and Kevin)

"Family has identified Donna Moore of Lloydminster as the woman killed at the Big Valley Jamboree after the festival's main stage collapsed during a severe thunderstorm Saturday.

Moore's son, Mike Tebbe, spent Sunday together with family and said he was not prepared to talk about his mother yet.

Moore was a huge country music fan who was at the festival for the weekend, said friend Warne Noyce.

"She was pumped to go to Big Valley. It makes me sick to my stomach because she was such an awesome lady," he said. "She was hanging out watching music with people she loved."...

...Stage speakers fell on Moore, crushing her, after a wind gust of about 100 kilometres per hour toppled stage scaffolding." [Calgary Herald]

The final day (Sunday) of the Camrose, Alberta festival was cancelled after the tragedy. The next band set to play on Saturday when the storm hit was Kevin Costner & Modern West (yes, that Kevin Costner).

NYC had their own storms this weekend too, causing chaos and cancellations for outdoor music, but luckily no tragedies.

Videos from Big Valley below...

Continue reading "1 dead, 75 injured when storm causes stage collapse at Canadian music festival Big Valley Jamboree (videos)"

A second worker injured in the Marseille, France, stage collapse ahead of a weekend Madonna concert has died, a French hospital official announced on Friday.

The 32-year-old British man died from injuries suffered in Thursday's incident at the Stade Velodrome in the southern French port city.

A French worker was killed instantly on Thursday when a partially completed roof section of the complex and intricate set collapsed on top of several people. Nine others were injured and sent to local hospitals, authorities said, noting at the time that an American and a British worker were in serious condition.

Madonna was reportedly "devastated" when she learned of the incident while warming up for her concert in Udine, Italy, on Thursday" [CBC]

Clips of the scene, below...

Continue reading "Madonna's stage collapses in France killing 2 (pic, videos)"