12 injured in moshpit collapse at Paris festival
Twelve people were injured at a French music festival when part of the floor collapsed during a performance by rapper Nes.
The incident took place late on Saturday (21 January) at the Hyperweekend festival at Radio France’s Maison de la Radio et de la Musique headquarters in Paris.
According to local police, as per Le Parisien, it is believed that a slab gave way under the weight of pogoing spectators. None of the injuries were considered to be serious but the show was curtailed and the space closed as a result of the accident.
“We are in contact with the police teams and Radio France is hiring an expert to determine the causes of the incident”
Radio France, which organised the event, offers its “most sincere apologies” in a social media post.
“We are thinking in particular of the 12 festival-goers who suffered injuries,” says the statement. “We are in contact with them to get news and support them. tonight, their condition seems reassuring and we wish them all a good recovery.
“The securing of the site, the management of injuries and the evacuation of festival-goers were done immediately and calmly, thanks to all the festival-goers present. We are in contact with the police teams and Radio France is hiring an expert to determine the causes of the incident.”
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Safety clampdown in HK after video screen fall
Mid-air installations at concerts are to be banned temporarily in Hong Kong as officials investigate the horror accident that injured two dancers at a show by Cantopop group Mirror.
Mo Lee Kai-yin, 27, was critically injured when a giant video screen fell on him during the concert at Hong Kong Coliseum last week. A second dancer was also hospitalised but has since been discharged.
While the investigation remains ongoing, leisure and cultural services department taskforce has announced three interim rules for event organisers to comply with, reports the South China Morning Post.
The measures include a review of stage design and mechanical installations, while all mid-air mechanical devices “designed to swing, rotate or carry people” will be banned. Promoters must also appoint an authorised expert to review the safety of the installations daily.
A source tells the Post the taskforce’s aim is to review stage safety in Hong Kong and determine whether existing regulations need to be strengthened.
“We will look into whether the wire hit other cables or equipment when the TV screen it supported was rotating and moving up and down during the show”
Mirror’s performance was the fourth in a scheduled 12-concert run by the 12-member band, who formed in 2018. The remaining shows in the series have been cancelled, with refunds to be given to ticket-holders.
Mirror’s management MakerVille and show organiser Music Nation say they are working with authorities and the contractor and subcontractors behind the stage structures to establish what went wrong.
Hong Kong’s culture secretary Kevin Yeung said initial observations suggest the metal wire used to support the video screen had fractured, causing it to fall.
According to the Post, the subsequent investigation will focus on analysing the metal wire.
“We will… look into whether the wire hit other cables or equipment when the TV screen it supported was rotating and moving up and down during the show,” says an insider. “We also have to find out whether the wire has experienced metal fatigue.”
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Man dies after New York concert backflip
A man has died after falling from a balcony at a Dead and Company concert in New York last Friday.
Drinks entrepreneur Ian Crystal, 46, fell up to 50’ (15m) onto concrete after allegedly attempting a backflip during an interval at the show, held at the 42,000-capacity Citi Field stadium on 20 August.
According to local media, Brooklyn resident Crystal was found unresponsive at the scene after hitting the ground headfirst.
Crystal (pictured) , who is thought to have jumped from a second-floor concourse, was pronounced dead at arrival at New York-Presbyterian Hospital in Queens, the New York Post reports.
“Our deepest and heartfelt condolences go out to all the attendee’s loved ones”
A driver outside the stadium said he saw the man later identified as Crystal “flip” before falling and slamming into the ground below, the Post adds.
Harold Kaufman, a spokesperson for the New York Mets, who play at Citi Field, told CNN the following day: “We are aware of a tragic incident which sadly resulted in a fatality last night. Our deepest and heartfelt condolences go out to all the attendee’s loved ones.”
Crystal was the CEO of Evolution Spirits, which produces Monkey Spiced Rum, and formerly worked with brands including Abolsut Vodka, Malibu Rum, and Stoli Vodka, collaborating with artists including Jay-Z, Swedish House Mafia and Ne-Yo.
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SA supreme court rejects appeal over concert death
The Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) of South Africa has rejected an appeal by one of the companies held responsible for a scaffolding tower collapse that killed one person at a Linkin Park show in South Africa in 2012.
In 2017, nearly five years after the death of 32-year-old Florentina Popa, Cape Town magistrate Ingrid Arntsen ruled that Vertex Scaffolding, Bothma Signs and Hirt & Carter – which constructed two large scaffolding towers at Cape Town Stadium and hung an advertisement for Lucozade between them – had been negligent and could be “causally linked” to Popa’s death, while Big Concerts, the promoter of the show, was found not to be responsible.
Popa died of blunt-force trauma after the tower fell on her in strong winds before Linkin Park show’s at the 58,309-seat stadium on 7 November 2012.
Arntsen said the companies should have foreseen that even moderate winds could have blown it over. “[W]inds with speeds of up to 15 metres per second were eminently foreseeable in Cape Town, and the towers could have been designed and constructed in such a way as to withstand the winds that were recorded on the day of the concert,” she said at the time.
“There is, in my view, no discernible material error of law … on which a review might be founded”
“It would appear, then, from all the evidence, that while the wind did come up and create problems, there was no real fear on the part of anyone in authority at the concert that the towers would blow over.”
Durban-based Hirt & Carter, which produces billboards and digital advertising, took the inquest’s findings to the Western Cape High Court, which dismissed the appeal, and then to the Supreme Court of appeal, which has upheld the high court’s ruling.
SCA judge Sulet Potterill, with four judges concurring, found that Arntsen “cannot be faulted for concluding that the death of the deceased was brought about by an act or omission that prima facie amounts to or involves an offence on the part of Hirt & Carter”, reports News24.
“It was premised on a finding of negligence on the part of Hirt & Carter. There is, in my view, no discernible material error of law by the magistrate of the kind on which a review might be founded. Indeed, I can find no error at all.”
Hirt & Carter’s appeal argued that the magistrate had erred when she found that it had omitted to supervise and manage the erection of the towers, which it said was the responsibility of a subcontractor (Bothma Signs).
In her judgment, Potterill disagreed, saying Arntsen “was correctly unpersuaded that the subcontracting of Bothma Signs and Vertex, against the facts of the case, could be relied on to exonerate Hirt & Carter.”
A further 19 people were injured in the accident, with 12 requiring hospitalisation.
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Four sentenced over Madonna stage collapse
Four professionals including the former head of operations for Live Nation France have been sentenced, following the collapse of a stage in France in 2009 that killed two people.
Technicians had been setting up the stage at the Velodrome stadium in Marseille for a Madonna concert when the partially-built roof fell in, bringing down a crane.
Charles Criscenzo, a 52-year-old French worker, and Charles Prow, a 23-year-old Briton, were killed while eight other workers sustained injuries in the accident. One of the injured workers took his own life two years later.
Yesterday (17 February), the magistrates of the court of Marseille (south), where the concert was to be held in 2009, convicted four defendants of manslaughter and involuntary damages, and acquitted three other defendants.
Live Nation France was ordered to pay a €150,000 fine, and Tour Concept €50,000
After a decade-long investigation, Jacqueline Bitton, at the time head of the French operations for Live Nation, received the most severe sentence: a suspended two-year prison term and a fine of €20,000.
Tim Norman, head of the British firm Edwin Shirley Group (ESG) which owned the stage, received a suspended two-year term as well as a €15,000 fine.
A manager at a French subcontractor hired by ESG, Tour Concept France, was given a suspended 18-month sentence and a €10,000 fine, while a British foreman hired for the job by ESG got an 18-month suspended sentence.
Live Nation France was ordered to pay a €150,000 fine, and Tour Concept €50,000.
After the concert was cancelled, Madonna said she was “shocked” by what happened and sent her condolences to the families of the victims. She did not appear at the trial.
The 60,000-seater Velodrome is France’s second-biggest sports arena and home to the Olympique de Marseille football club.
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Pink’s crew, manager escape plane crash unscathed
A private plane carrying Pink’s crew and manager Roger Davies made a crash landing in Aarhus airport in Denmark, local police have confirmed.
Ten people were onboard the plane, which caught fire after landing. No casualties were reported.
“Pink was not personally on board,” a representative of Live Nation Norway told reporters. “Her manager and several other members [on] the tour were, but it all turned out ok.”
Davies took over management of Pink following the release of her second album, Missundaztood, in 2001. The Australian has worked with artists including Tina Turner, Cher, Janet Jackson and Olivia Newton-John.
“Pink was not personally on board, her manager and several [crew] members were, but it all turned out ok”
The plane had taken off from Oslo, Norway, on its way to the next stop on the European leg of Pink’s Beautiful Trauma tour at the 10,400-capacity Casa Arena in the Danish city of Horsens. The show went ahead last night (Wednesday 7 August) as planned.
After the date in Horsens, the singer is heading to the Veltins Arena (62,271-cap.) in Gelsenkirchen, Germany and open-air venue Malieveld in the Hague, Holland (17,500), before heading back to North America for three more dates.
The 156-date tour, which kicked off in Phoenix, Arizona, on 1 March 2018, was the fourth highest-grossing tour of last year.
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Radiohead demand answers for fatal stage collapse
Last night saw Radiohead play their first Toronto show since the fatal accident that claimed the claimed the life of their drum technician Scott Johnson six years ago. During the second encore, the band called for answers and accountability over the 2012 incident.
“We wanted to do a show in Toronto, the stage collapsed, killing one of our colleagues and friends,” frontman Thom Yorke said to the audience.
“The people who should be held accountable are still not being held accountable in your city. The silence is fucking deafening.”
Whilst preparing for a show at Downsview Park in Toronto in June 2012, the roof of the stage collapsed, killing the 33 year-old from Doncaster and injuring three others. The following year, Ontario’s Ministry of Labour brought charges against Live Nation, Optex Staging and Services and stage engineer Domenic Cugliari for wrongdoing under the Occupational Health and Safety Act. All parties pleaded not guilty.
“The people who should be held accountable are still not being held accountable in your city.”
However, with three days remaining on the trial, judge Shaun Nakatsuru was appointed to the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, declaring a mistrial. The judge appointed to the case after Nakatsuru’s departure, Ann Nelson, ruled in favour of the defendant’s application to drop the case, citing their entitlement to a trial without unreasonable delays. Last year, the charges were stayed altogether.
Radiohead drummer Philip Selway recently discussed the lack of response from the Canadian justice system on BBC’s Newsnight. He said the court case had “broken down on a technicality,” with everyone involved having received “no real answers”.
Yorke’s passionate speech at last night’s gig at the Scotiabank Arena was followed by a moment of silence. It is reported that members of the crowd interrupted the silence only to shout “we’re sorry” and “we love you”.
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