Indiana State Fair Stage Collapse

my god just horrible

Sugarland Stage Collapse [VIDEO] - Entertainment & Stars (http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/197994/20110815/sugarland-stage-collapse-indiana-state-fair-tradegy-stage-collapse-video.htm)

I just watched that video. Surreal. Honestly I don't like how the governor of Indiana said it was a fluke that nobody could've seen coming. If you think about it, it's easy to see the warning signs. Those are hurricane force winds, and that stage, both from that video, and from plenty of concerts I've been to that have similar main stage setups, is clearly not built to withstand seriously strong winds. They should've postponed it just for safety concerns. You know, nobody ever expects something like this to happen until it does, and then once it's happened, that's when we start reshaping policies and working towards preventing things like this from happening in the future. This could've been easily prevented, all they had to do was postpone it since you know nothing good ever happens when hanging out in serious storm type winds.

I just watched that video. Surreal. Honestly I don't like how the governor of Indiana said it was a fluke that nobody could've seen coming. If you think about it, it's easy to see the warning signs. Those are hurricane force winds, and that stage, both from that video, and from plenty of concerts I've been to that have similar main stage setups, is clearly not built to withstand seriously strong winds. They should've postponed it just for safety concerns. You know, nobody ever expects something like this to happen until it does, and then once it's happened, that's when we start reshaping policies and working towards preventing things like this from happening in the future. This could've been easily prevented, all they had to do was postpone it since you know nothing good ever happens when hanging out in serious storm type winds.

One of the articles I read said that that storm just popped up out of nowhere. Apparently it went from a pleasant evening to gale force winds in a very short amount of time.

But man, that video was unbelievable. Terrifying.

I've been to countless shows in my life, and on more than one occasion I've looked up at the rigging and thought, if that collapses we're totally F'd. To see it actually happen is pretty terrifying. I can't believe more people weren't killed or hurt.

It looks like a temporarry stage and they are only built but so strong. Most of the time if you cancel thes events they never happen and the musicians still get paid their full price. What I read is that they saw the storm coming but decide to go on with the event. Then the storm grew and by the time they decided to cancel the show it was too late. Sad to see people die like this.

It looks like a temporarry stage and they are only built but so strong. Most of the time if you cancel thes events they never happen and the musicians still get paid their full price. What I read is that they saw the storm coming but decide to go on with the event. Then the storm grew and by the time they decided to cancel the show it was too late. Sad to see people die like this.

Yes you are completley right. They had lots of warning about the storm and apparantley for about half the day they knew something bad could happen. I was reading last night some comments on the article by people who were there, and its like you said: They knew a bad storm was coming and still decided to take a chance.

It wouldnt surprise me if there is a lawsuit. I mean we can all see that happening but the governer was flat out lying when he said it was a fluke. It was not a fluke as they had advanced warning and had ample time to cancel the show and save peoples lives. I can see them wanting to still have a show because they paid for it, but it really upsets me after the fact when you hear about things happening like this where people had warning but went ahead anyways....

Its amazing so few people died. Especially considering how many people were in the pit. Its lucky none of the artists had taken the stage... No way they would've made it out alive.

Fluke my ass. Not expected does not equal fluke. Fluke is some giant gale-force wind picking up a tractor-trailer and hurling at the crowd. That's a fluke. Erecting a giant steel kite and acting all surprised when a summer thunder storm pops up and the winds lift it isn't all that hard to imagine. Try and cya all they want that was preventable in a number of ways. Not the least of which was to have rigged the thing better.

i do stage tech, and that truss looked awfully high... there's a good chance it just wasn't rigged correctly, cause I've done outdoor shows with 30ft towers/truss, and we'd always triple rig, and cross rig the towers to each other. If high winds were expected, we'd clamp all the curtains in under 5 minutes to reduce surface area. we did shows in 40mph wind all the time. never worked with anything that big though.