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

I believe Brian lives in Indianapolis, where this tragedy occured last night. It's a sorrowful time for friends and families of the victimes and for the fans of Sugarland.


5 dead after stage collapse at Sugarland concert

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

The stagelighting company I work for does truss structures and roofs for concerts and events. I have done lots of them. Safety is always a concern. If the sky looks threatening, or the wind really starts whipping, we'll crank (or motor) the roof down to a safe height and tighten all the cables holding it down. We have had to tell bands "I don't care who you are. It's not safe. We're stopping the show."
That wind must have come up awfully fast for this tragedy to occur. I'd like to think that the crew chief was doing his job, and this disaster was completely unavoidable. We have nightmares about this very kind of thing. I feel for everyone involved.

http://www.newstimes.com/news/article/Stage-collapse-kills-4-ahead-of-Sugarland-concert-1992212.php

The link didn't work but this one does- pretty scary video. It may be of no consolation to the families of the victims but at least it didn't happen during the actual performance.

We also live within 20 minutes of Indianapolis. Had talked about going to see Sugarland but I saw them when they were here with Kenny Chesney so we decided to skip the concert. I had a lot of friends who went though.Thank goodness, they are all ok. Please keep all of the families who were involved in this tragedy in your thoughts and prayers.

A fifth person died who was up in the lighting rig making a last minute adjustment to a light. The stage company is a local one from nearby Greenfield (just east of Indianapolis). The canceled the Janet Jackson show and the Grammy Song of the Year winners who were playing the night after that show. They shut the entire fair on Sunday, which is often the largest day of the entire event. The fair had been having it's best year ever, much needed for so many in the bad economy. One of the few truly family fun activities people can enjoy each year and now a darkness over it all. In the video you see an eerie cloud form just to the left of the stage and bring it all down. Fair officials said they did not expect the wind gust that early, but the weather service later claimed they specifically warned the fair that there were 60+ mile per hour straight winds leading the storm front so hopefully the truth will come out. After the collapse during the Cheap Trick show in Canada and now this, it has to raise some major red flags that safety needs to be re-evaluated. Some local claims have been made that cabling to allow for 100MPH straight winds had not been used is adding to the uproar. Meanwhile not only the direct victims who were injured, but all those present will have a dark scar to live with in their minds for a long long time. Interestingly there were no reports of rides falling or breaking in the same winds, something that does bode well for those companies which often are in the news for the wrong reasons. So this annual break from the misery of life in most of the USA today has been shattered. We really need something to raise our collective national hope right now. I haven't seen the USA this down since the mid 70's and stuff like this just seems to pile on.

On the positive side were all the heroes in the audience who rushed the stage and saved people from further harm. People do tend to pull together when things are their worst.

Brian

My prayers to the families.

Oddly there was a roof collapse just a few weeks ago in an outdoor event in Canada.

Can't just be under a safe tent with porta power.

I have darn near got struck by lightning riding my bike.

I guess God and mother nature has their own plan.

Eventually this tragedy will get some serious scrutiny. Is there any sense of neglect? Was that a "permanent" stage or was it rigged especially for the concert? If it was, I'll bet the next one will withstand the end-times. Sad and unfair. 12,000 people will never be the same again.

I heard about this right after if happened thanks to twitter and facebook. What a nightmare. I heard that about 4 minutes before the tragedy somebody came over the stage and told everybody there was a severe thunderstorm coming and that they needed to take shelter.
It turns out that Sugarland was actually supposed to be on stage already, but they were told not to go on until it was safe. The video on youtube of the stage collapse is awful. When you hear the stage came down, you don't think, the stage came down...like the entire lighting rig and everything, you just think some of the stage hit somebody. The video shows it was in fact everything except for the base of the stage that came down, because it was on the ground. I can't imagine that happening at a concert. It will probably cause new safety rules for outdoor shows in the future, kinda like the nightclubs that had no sprinklers. I feel terrible for the families that lost people. Just awful

so very very sad...

very interesting article by a meteorologist

http://www.weather.com/outlook/weat...ianapolis-tragedy-not-a-fluke_2011-08-15