Andy R Posted August 14, 2011 Share Posted August 14, 2011 Stage collapse during Sugar Land Concert. Very sad as 4 people currently listed dead.... Many injured. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LPguitarman Posted August 14, 2011 Share Posted August 14, 2011 Very sad news. That sucks... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Californiaman Posted August 14, 2011 Share Posted August 14, 2011 That's a tough one. People just out to either do their job or have a good time and all hell breaks lose. Sorry to hear about this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tazzboy Posted August 14, 2011 Share Posted August 14, 2011 Geezz.. That's the Second first it was Cheap Trick in Canada and now Sugarland in Indiana Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fl00dsm0k3 Posted August 14, 2011 Share Posted August 14, 2011 hope nobody else is hurt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigKahune Posted August 14, 2011 Share Posted August 14, 2011 . Yes, I caught that in the news too. Tragic weather related disaster. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duende Posted August 14, 2011 Share Posted August 14, 2011 sorry to hear this Andy :( Take care Matt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest farnsbarns Posted August 14, 2011 Share Posted August 14, 2011 Tragic event. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djroge1 Posted August 14, 2011 Share Posted August 14, 2011 Yes tragic. I hope there are no more casualties. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TommyK Posted August 16, 2011 Share Posted August 16, 2011 After their pre-performance prayer circle, the country duo Sugarland was ready to take the stage. Their road manager saw the weather and said, let's hold up a minute before letting them mount the stage. Seconds later the stage rigging collapsed. All of their equipment was destroyed. Shaken by the tragedy, they canceled their next performance at the Iowa State Fair. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TommyK Posted August 16, 2011 Share Posted August 16, 2011 dupe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LarryUK Posted August 16, 2011 Share Posted August 16, 2011 I've read here that it's five now. Why is the world falling apart? It's everywhere. Just bad news all the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daryl M Posted August 16, 2011 Share Posted August 16, 2011 Thoughts and prayers out to everyone affected by this freak tragedy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silenced Fred Posted August 16, 2011 Share Posted August 16, 2011 so sad. I was driving through Iowa, and some local deejays were complaining about how they canceled their set at the Iowa State Fair, and that they should know it was a freak accident and its not like the Iowa stage is gonna collapse... wtf? It was ridiculous Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
milod Posted August 16, 2011 Share Posted August 16, 2011 My understanding is that all their set and equipment were destroyed, so IMHO it's not entirely "shaken" that brought the Iowa cancellation. Oddly last Thursday night we came close to something similar at the rodeo rough stock event. A much smaller crowd, under 2,000, but a wall cloud came over and gave us lightning and maybe 50-60 mph winds in an interesting 15 minutes or so. The crowd sheltered best in the grandstand that dates back about a century. Then the rodeo continued. It only stopped because of lightning and a lotta metal in the chutes and a new second grandstand. But it's the same arena and grandstands I took photos of an 80 mph wind with the then Miss Rodeo South Dakota opening the program. The live Cowboy Band performance of the Star Spangled Banner closed with the wind hitting over 70 mph. Miss Rodeo controlled her borrowed horse in the middle of the arena carrying a huge flag although I couldn't see past her into the grandstands from the rough stock chutes. Then it was over and the rodeo opened with former world champ Marvin Garrett winning the bareback bronc competition with a 90-point ride. Then again, an 80-mph wind isn't that big a deal here. Still, I'd have hated to have been set up to play music outside when that hit. m Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EVOL! Posted August 16, 2011 Share Posted August 16, 2011 Tragedies like this break my heart. Death at a music event? These are supposed to be good times and celebration. This event was all over the news here in Chicago because a lesbian couple who was recently hitched (new civil union law in IL) were crushed by that stage. One was killed and the other has a fractured skull. The woman killed was a big activist in the LGB community. I could only watch the video of the stage collapsing once. Freaks me to the core. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Artie Owl Posted August 16, 2011 Share Posted August 16, 2011 I understand the concert promoters were warned up to several hours before the actual catastrophe. They were repeatedly warned by meteorologists but it wasn't until it was too late did they do or say anything about it. I feel terrible for those who lost their lives and were injured. Couldn't the concert promoters at least cordon off the potentially dangerous sections due to high wind until they knew more? There are a lot of unanswered questions at this point. Still my thoughts with those who lost loved ones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy R Posted August 16, 2011 Author Share Posted August 16, 2011 It is very refreshing to hear these comments and no one blaming the stagehand crew or the structure. I am close to this issue in a few ways some of which I can't comment on at the moment. Some of what I can share is that I used to be a local stagehand and lighting tech. I have directed and worked on many crews erecting tops, stage and truss. I have also been the guy hanging from the truss chair running follow spot like one of the people who was killed. I know the safety precautions that are taken when erecting these structures and how everyone checks and double checks everything before it flies. One loose bolt or something left in the truss can kill or injure someone. Everyone takes this seriously. This was also the local union stagehands and I know they are cautious and well trained. The stage was engineered and manufactured by J Thomas Truss. Anyone who knows anything about truss knows about Thomas Truss .There is even a picture of it on their website. It wasn't some foreign made imitation or something that was backyard engineered. The company that owns the stage has been around Indianapolis for at least 20 years or more and I know they have a good reputation. This is just my speculation but again having worked in these same circumstances I highly doubt there was anyone from the crew or production company that thought it was a good idea to have that top in the air with a storm coming in. I would also speculate that they made this known. The crews I worked on in the past would have never had that top in the air to begin with. Who wants to chance being killed or ruining a couple million dollars worth of gear?? Yet alone chancing injury or death to performers or audience. The top would have been down and speaker clusters tarped. I can't speak for other crews or situations that have happened previously but I have a pretty good knowledge of what was involved on this one. Just my opinion... on that. Glad you all have some common sense. Regards, Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stein Posted August 17, 2011 Share Posted August 17, 2011 Well, sinse the issue is out in the open... No way to replace lives, and nothing here as a consequence is worth a life. There is no appropriate apology or sentence to hand down. It is tragic, it is not intentional, and it sucks. It is not the first stage to go down, I read about another recently that killed one. Obviously, something needs to be changed or fixed, and fast. The most important reason to step up and get to the business here, obviously, is so no more get killed or hurt beyond repair. But besides that, if the business does not step up and take care of it, there very possibly might be others that will. There might be regulations and agencies that get involved that not only add to the cost, but may make actual safety harder to achieve. There is plenty of agencies right now that have nothing to do and would love to get involved (to save their jobs) that will want to require so much permits and inspections that these stages will be so cost prohibitive they can easily become a thing of our past. If there is an element at work here making safety impossible, I would view them as REQUIRING that others outside the business get involved. I would expose them and get them the hell outta there before they ruin it for everyone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy R Posted August 17, 2011 Author Share Posted August 17, 2011 If there is an element at work here making safety impossible, I would view them as REQUIRING that others outside the business get involved. I would expose them and get them the hell outta there before they ruin it for everyone. There is. They are called promoters and venue owners. Who stands to lose money if the show gets cancelled because of weather? Not the Staging and production company. Who gets sued if they refuse to fly a rig because of possible bad weather and a show gets cancelled? In Indiana it is not uncommon to see a storm front like they were showing on the radars turn into nothing very quickly or glide right past with a little wiff of wind and a sprinkle. Promoters and venues around here will wait and wait to see what it will be. So if you own the rig and refuse to fly it and the weather ends up not being bad and a show is cancelled then you get your *** sued off. It's a bad situation and hard to call especially if the owner of the production company isn't there to decide if they want to risk it. More often than not there will be a lead tech that has to decide if they want to potentially cost their company a big chunk of change. In the end there is definitely things that could be done to help avoid some of these issues technically and in process. The thing is you can't engineer yourself out of every set of circumstances that lead to disasters. Space Shuttles blow up, Airplanes crash, Nuclear reactors meltdown. Think about the minds, time, and money spent engineering around these things and it still happens.... Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy R Posted August 17, 2011 Author Share Posted August 17, 2011 Here is the bad weather announcement made to fans 4 minutes before the wind gust occurred. What do you guys think? Hearing this, would you have stayed put or moved to shelter? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQB-N_vfge4 Here is the text in case you're not into video. "We are all hoping for the best, that the weather is going to bypass us. But there's a very good chance that it won't. So just a quick heads-up before the show starts: If there is a point during the show that we have to stop the show on stage, what we'd like to have you do is promptly move toward the exits and then head across the street to either to the Champions Pavilion, the Blue Ribbon Pavilion or the Pepsi Coliseum. And then, once the storm passes and everything’s safe, we're going to try our best to come back and resume the show, which we have every belief that that is going to happen. So get ready, because in just a couple minutes we're going to try to get Sugarland on stage. Have a great show!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stein Posted August 17, 2011 Share Posted August 17, 2011 Regarding THAT announcement, I would take that as a warning to be ready to vacate, but I don't hear a vacate notice there. I would have to say for me, if I had heard that I would have stayed put and waited to see if they were going to have the bad weather they were saying would likely happen, or if they were going to be able to get the band on like they said they were going to try and do. I could paraphrase that to say it means, "looks like we have a storm here folks, But stick around, we have a great show for ya!" I don't mean to say that I have an opinion BASED on that statement-I don't know what else was said before and after, I wasn't there experiencing the weather, and I don't know what was said or done behind the scenes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stein Posted August 17, 2011 Share Posted August 17, 2011 I think when in PUBLIC, we all have to share in a little personal responsibility. Can't go blaming everyone else every time for everything bad that happens. If there is an earthquake, and things are on fire, and the promoter comes out and says all is cool, I don't think I would expect him to protect me from what is coming my way. But...what if it's Zeppilin? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy R Posted August 17, 2011 Author Share Posted August 17, 2011 I think when in PUBLIC, we all have to share in a little personal responsibility. Can't go blaming everyone else every time for everything bad that happens. If there is an earthquake, and things are on fire, and the promoter comes out and says all is cool, I don't think I would expect him to protect me from what is coming my way. But...what if it's Zeppilin? Agreed and by the way that was the ONLY public announcement about the weather... Not a blame... Just saying if I were at a show that I really wanted to see and that was the announcement and I was upfront I probably wouldn't have moved.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
retrosurfer1959 Posted August 17, 2011 Share Posted August 17, 2011 We all push it with the weather because people do there jobs well and most of the time people are lucky and it's all right but weather is an unbelievably strong thing that we just can't predict well, let alone control. Most of the times a structure flexes and survives but there are times like this when all the things that can go wrong do go wrong and disaster strikes. Joplin Missouri just about got wiped off the map and it wasn't a temporary stage and some of those buildings had been there for decades through hundreds of bad storms until all the negatives combined and they got desimated it happens and there's not much that can be done. I feel very sorry for the people hurt and for the families of the people who lost their lives but second guessing and the blame game that starts after something like this still won't allow us to prevent accidents like this when mother nature is the culprit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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