JPF Home Page Forums General Messages General Message Forum Indianapolis 'Sugarland' concert tragedy

Yes, we were just there yesterday and had talked about going to the show. My family shows Miniature Donkeys each year at the fair so it's a yearly tradition to attend. We've seen many shows there includling Heart & Journey there most recently. It was also the location of my first ever concert of Walter Egan (now a JPF mentor) and Heart back in my youth.

Usually there are wooden chairs lined up all the way to the stage but for this show, they created a mosh pit of "super fans" to honor their biggest fans and that is who was crammed down right in front of the stage where people were crushed when the entire scafolding and light and sound rigs came crashing down into the front of the crowd.

I was up until 2AM watching local coverage of it all. A friend of mine, a local reporter for the Indianapolis Star newspaper was interviewed there about it all. He was covering the show and was lucky to get away in time. They had made a stage announcement moments before telling folks a storm from was coming and to move back into the colliseum for shelter and that the show would resume right after the storm from went through. The band, according to reports last night, was literally seconds away from a prayer circle on the stage they usually do which would have put them on the stage and under the gigantic circle piece that had to be lifted by large cranes and hung over the stage which came crashing down. Only by miracle had the last band finished, the crew finished setting up and the stage had been totally cleared for the bands entrance onto the stage to start. The crash came at 8:43PM and the show was to start on time at 8:45PM so you can imagine how close they all came to losing their lives. If a band had been center stage, it's doubtful they could have survived.

At last count last night, 4 were dead and 43 hospitalized. I am sure the number has changed since then.

Very sad. I've written about seeing shows there and right behind this stadium is the Pepsi colliseum where the Beatles performed one of their last live shows and were also tragedy struck with a gas explosion which killed over 70 people. So lots of mixed feelings now. My parents showed their donkeys there in the Pepsi colliseum the night before and raced on the dirt track exactly where it all collapsed that afternoon. It's a miracle many more people weren't killed.

Here is a current working link:
http://www.indystar.com/article/20110814/NEWS15/108140419/Death-toll-reaches-5-State-Fair-Sugarland-stage-collapse?odyssey=nav%7Chead

Brian