EDM musician Jai Wolf was reportedly performing on the Fischer Stage when a barricade collapsed on the crowd.
Wednesday, September 04, 2019
Four Injured At Seattle Music Festival After Barricade Collapses
EDM musician Jai Wolf was reportedly performing on the Fischer Stage when a barricade collapsed on the crowd.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
It's truly crazy how the gear used to interact with the audience has to be rated to withstand so much more loading than you'd expect. This was something I didn't think much of, but then after working with tours and audience risers, I saw the difference of the fabrication process and materials used to create a product for audience interaction rather than performer interaction. Especially for gear that goes to music festivals or "rowdy" concert events in which there is a high density of people, sometimes not in their sane mind. As tour management and gear provider, there should be communication about what the expected wear the gear should see. This seems like a situation in which there was gear given that are intended as barriers for a mild-to-moderate impact whereas perhaps there was potential that if knowing there would be more significant impact on the barriers, the production team could of gone for a more heavy duty style with counterweight to prevent such dangers like this occurring again.
How ironic is this… Of all the possible pieces of equipment that could have failed, the barricade intended to hold the crowd back is what gave way. In the low-res video taken from somewhere above the stage, upon my first viewing, it didn’t particularly seem as if the crowd is deliberately pushing against the barricade. Upon closer inspection in subsequent viewings, when the beat drops, you can just make out people father back in the crown push forward, sparking a wave of people that ultimately has nowhere to go but forward. Although these barriers are built to hold people back, they don’t really stand a chance against the collective force of a solid forty-foot long wall of raving human pushing towards it. Fortunately, of the few injuries reported, none were life threatening, but it begs the question of whether or not the design of these barricades needs to be reworked. Honestly, I don’t think it is necessary because this appears to be an isolated instance, and the circumstances of the accident (forty foot long moving wall of human) seemed very unique to the situation.
While a barricade collapsing isn’t great, this is the kind of stuff I would rather hear about happening at some sort of live event. It seems all too often now that what is occurring ranges from machinery and steel falling out of the sky from failure or inadequacy of something all the way to mass shootings. Those types of things are extremely hard to comprehend. If something fails because it was done improperly, why aren’t people caring? It means someone along the way is complacent and that isn’t okay. If it’s a mass shooting, there is only so much prevention that can be done and prep work for when it does happen in knowing how to respond. Something like this barricade on the other hand, people are there that can easily deal with something like this anyways. I would rather see this over the occurrences mentioned because this, while it shouldn’t have happened, isn’t as serious as a mass shooting.
As someone who has felt the pressure of being sandwiched between hundreds of energetic people and the front row spot at the barricade, I can sympathize with the terror that must of been felt in that moment. The people at this event are extremely lucky to still be alive. There are multiple horror stories out there of individuals being crushed and killed due to massive crowds and malfunctioning safety structures. I don’t think people should avoid events where they can have fun out of fear, but stories like the one at Bumbershoot should stand as a warning to the danger that can occur. It’s ok to have fun, just be aware of the surroundings. Hopefully, a stronger barricade can be found and people with be more cautious when the music festival opens back up. I am a very small person who has encountered moments of almost being crushed due to oblivious people so I hope the best for the rest of the small attendees there.
Post a Comment