Outdoor stage collapses

With the recent storm hitting Belgium and causing multiple tents/stage collapses and killing at least three, this has brought the total up to three or four stage related tragedies this summer. This will likely stir a debate about outdoor stages, how they are built, and how they can handle storms...as it should...but how much emphasis will be put on this? It is terrible, but it seems even at the beginning of this year, the United States saw an absurd amount of tornadoes and sever thunderstorms hitting the area, surely you can't exactly plan around that. These storms seems to develop out of nowhere, but how much more can be done to secure a temporary stage? Only so much can be done overall, but better planning and evacuation/safety probably needs to be put into place when keeping an eye on weather and anticipating when it may hit a given town. But these collapses and deaths will add up quickly.

Heart goes out to all affected.

This storm didn't came out of nowhere. The remains of the storm passed over my town a couple of hours ago, but they were talking about the possibility of thunder and heavy showers for today last weekend. A Dutch news website just confirmed a fourth person died in hospital.

I know it's not just out of nowhere, which was why I said they need to work on their emergency plans to. And storms around here are famous for getting stronger as they develop. They may develop an hour away, but by the time they get here they'll have a nice bow echo with the leading front producing 70mph winds.

I had taken a picture of this storm coming into Omaha earlier this summer, and just as it hit, we got nailed with about 55mph winds for a good 5 minutes.



I think a lot more needs to be done on the festival and shows part to keep an eye on storms and get people out of the area or have some sort of emergency plan to get clear of any possible falling debris like the larger stages and tower setups.

i was at the Beale Street Music Fest. this year and it was storming really bad. it's located in a park right on the river. there was heavy rain, lightning, crazy gusts of wind, tornado sirens, and the Mississippi River was well past the height they consider it to be flooding. Memphis was evacuating neighborhoods and what not. it was bad.
anyways, on the last day before the music even started the stage crew came out and lowered amps and tied stuff down, covered a bunch of stuff and all that jazz. then a guy came on stage and told everyone to move. that there was a high chance the stage could come down and kill people. he wasn't very nice about it really, but you wouldn't expect him to. a lot of people did move. hundreds of people did. including my friends and i. then as soon as the wind died down a little everyone went running back up. the stage guy came back up yelled at everyone again, not be near the stage. no one moved.
then Lucero played so whateva.

the thing is, people choose to stand by a stage when they are well aware it can come down.
fests and stage crew take all the safety precautions they can.
attendees don't.

It started pouring really bad and got windy before Against Me! came to Council Bluffs (Omaha metro area) Warped tour, and we were not warned at all. I got soaked, I was pissed....till AM! played 45 minutes later.

well. it's not really their job to tell you the weather. you should look the weather up before going places. it's kinda why it's so easily available...

Yes, because when I looked at there was nothing on the radar, it's my fault a storm hit 4 hours later? I don't see how that's fair. It was literally sunny all day until about 7 o clock when a strong storm passed through. It supposedly developed about 80 miles northwest of us and just came in. And I don't have some $30 extra phone plan to give me the internet either to watch whether while it develops.

listen to a radio.

I was at a concert

haha. i get what you're saying. i don't have a data plan either. i just turned to the guy next to me who had his droid out and asked him what the weather was doing. after that he would randomly tell me updates.

That's nice. I'm sorry if I seem like a dick, I just absolutely think it is promoter's jobs to warn or keep an eye on any circumstance to keep their fans safe. I'm kind of stuck in that idea. Event holders need to be responsible for their events and safety of their patrons.

Completely agreed.

it'd be nice if they did do that but there are "warnings" on the ticket saying they aren't reliable therefore the patrons are
and you don't seem rude or anything haha. i see where you're coming from.