Another stage collapse

[ruinexplorer]

One dead reportedly after a stage collapsed in Camrose (Alberta, Canada). It was bad weather, possibly tornadic.

http://www.inews880.com/Channels/Reg...spx?ID=1121236

One dead, 15 injured after stage collapses at Big Valley Jamboree

[Footer]

From the looks of things there was nothing that was going to stop that roof from coming down. Best thing they could have done is evacuate. We get storms like that here in Wichita, they blow through in 10 minutes, go crazy, then leave like nothing happened. Thats not enough time to drop a roof down or anything like that. Thankfully it did not flip onto the audience or something like that.

[Kelite]

Aside from the brief edit (photographer turns camera off for a little while, restarting in the midst of the nastiness) at 1:21 or so, this video shows the building and ferocity of that storm. The audio is really something too.

Big Valley Storm and Aftermath - Realtime footage

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[Dionysus]

We are revving up for the Celtic Roots Festival, and one of the engineers got an email "1 dead, 15 injured at Canmore" where another festival was going on, our head engineer was there. We were freaking out, until we saw the actual news article and saw it was Camrose.
Still a horrible tragedy, but we still breathed a sigh of relief. It's funny how much more you connect with and react when you think a friend might be seriously injured.
There has been a lot of talk about the Camrose stage collapse here as we get ready for our own festival.

There sure have been a LOT of stage collapses this year.

[FMEng]

This can happen almost anywhere, and will be repeated again and again. Wind is very dangerous around portable stages. The newspaper reports that Environment Canada (the equivalent of the National Weather Service in the US) had issued warnings for thunderstorms and high winds. In other words, injuries were preventable and liabilities will be huge.

At every outdoor venue, someone should be charged with monitoring National Weather Service radio for warnings and watches. With tone alert (and SAME decoder) radios, the radio will sound an alarm when a warning is issued so a person doesn't have to constantly listen. Good NWS radios can be had for $50. Producers and venues should have a clear and firm policy in place that activities will be stopped when weather warnings are issued.

Wind isn't the only risk. Lightning is just as much of a risk for killing people in an outdoor concert setting.