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 Post subject: Another festival stage collapse: Toronto - 1 Dead
PostPosted: Sun Aug 14, 2011 6:33 pm 
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Five dead in Indiana State Fair stage collapse identified
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Indiana State Police and authorities survey the collapsed rigging and Sugarland stage on the infield at the Indiana State Fair in Indianapolis, Sunday, Aug. 14, 2011. Five people died in the stage collapse. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)


Updated: Sun Aug. 14 2011 09:09:25

CTV News.ca Staff

Five people killed after strong gusts of wind caused a stage to topple at the Indiana State Fair were identified on Sunday as Indianapolis struggles to cope with the sudden and deadly tragedy.

At least 45 other concert-goers were injured on Saturday night when blustery winds caused the fair's stage to collapse, sending lights and other stage equipment tumbling into the audience below.

Songstress Sara Bareilles had just finished performing and the crowd was waiting for country music duo Sugarland to take the stage.

Hundreds of revellers scattered amid the chaos while other bystanders rushed to lift steel scaffolding off the injured while emergency crews set up a triage centre near the stage.

"It was horrible," concert-goer Emily Davis told Indianapolis news station WTHR. "People were running and going crazy."

The Marion County Coroner's office said on Sunday that 23-year-old Alina Bigjohny of Fort Wayne, 29-year-old Christina Santiago of Chicago, and Indianapolis residents Tammy Vandam, 42, and Glenn Goodrich, 49, died in the hours after the collapse.

Fifty-one-year-old Nathan Byrd, of Indianapolis, died in hospital overnight. Byrd is believed to be a spotlight worker who was on the stage when it collapsed.

Witnesses reported seeing several people with head and neck injuries and broken bones. Indiana State Police Sgt. Rich Myers would only offer that the injuries ranged from "slight to very critical."

At least 18 concert-goers were transported to the nearby Wishard Memorial Hospital with non-life threatening injuries, confirmed hospital spokesperson Todd Harper. He said the problems included head injuries, bone fractures and lacerations.

A 7-year-old fair attendee was among those being treated in hospital, said Harper who didn't provide further detail.

The number of reported injuries might rise in the coming days, said Indiana State Police Sgt. Dave Burstein who explained that many concert-goers may have taken themselves to the hospital.


Early warning


A local radio personality took to the stage moments before it caved in to warn the crowd that severe weather conditions were possible, said Indianapolis Star journalist David Lindquist.

Lindquist, who was sitting in the fifth row at the time of the collapse, said the announcer gave the crowd instructions on what to do if an evacuation was necessary.

"Moments later this gust of wind came and crumpled the rigging," he told CTV News Channel on Sunday.

Lindquist said there was a cement slab that is used as a stage throughout the year, but a large metal framework was added to the stage during the 16-day fair. He said each band that play attached its own speakers and equipment to the framework.

Witnesses reported seeing a dark sky with short blasts of lightning just before the stage's collapse. Despite the evacuation warning, Lindquist said many concertgoers chose to stay put and wait out the weather.

The Indiana State Fair stage collapse was particularly treacherous because there was an exclusive pit for special guests sitting next to the stage, said Lindquist.

"There was an actual VIP pit close to the stage," he said. "The tragic thing is, in this instance, it put a higher concentration of people in harm's way."

Witnesses near the pit reported seeing a towering wall of dirt, dust and rain hit the fairgrounds before the collapse.

Concert-goer Jessica Alsman told The Associated Press that the towering, metal stage "kind of wobbled at first" before crumpling into the audience.

Faced with an initial blast of wind, Alsman and her friends grabbed each other and formed a chain. The group of four wasn't expecting what happened next.

"You can't imagine," she said. "We just thought it was going to rain or something."


After the storm


In the wake of the incident, fair officials cancelled all festival activities scheduled for Sunday.

Instead, emergency crews continued to search through the wreckage on the Indiana fairgrounds to ensure there were no other injured concert-goers who wandered off after the collapse.

The fair, which was slated to run through Aug. 21, is expected to resume Monday with a service honouring the victims.

Jennifer Nettles, the lead singer for the Sugarland, said that members of the country band were heartbroken for the fans and their families in Indiana.

"We hold those injured in our prayers at this very sad time. There are no words. It is tragic," Nettles said in a statement.

With files from the Associated Press



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 Post subject: Re: Another festival stage collapse, 5 Dead
PostPosted: Sun Aug 14, 2011 7:11 pm 
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Man, that's just terrible. Surprised that with the warning ahead of time about the weather that they didn't clear out.


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 Post subject: Re: Another festival stage collapse, 5 Dead
PostPosted: Sun Aug 14, 2011 10:12 pm 
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vegman wrote:
Man, that's just terrible. Surprised that with the warning ahead of time about the weather that they didn't clear out.

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 Post subject: Re: Another festival stage collapse, 5 Dead
PostPosted: Sun Aug 14, 2011 10:20 pm 
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broken iris wrote:
vegman wrote:
Man, that's just terrible. Surprised that with the warning ahead of time about the weather that they didn't clear out.


They were die-hard fans.


what the fuck was that?

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 Post subject: Re: Another festival stage collapse, 5 Dead
PostPosted: Sun Aug 14, 2011 10:28 pm 
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broken iris wrote:
vegman wrote:
Man, that's just terrible. Surprised that with the warning ahead of time about the weather that they didn't clear out.


They were die-hard fans.

Hysterical!

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 Post subject: Re: Another festival stage collapse, 5 Dead
PostPosted: Sun Aug 14, 2011 11:07 pm 
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Sorry. :oops:

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 Post subject: Re: Another festival stage collapse, 5 Dead
PostPosted: Sun Aug 14, 2011 11:29 pm 
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lol

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 Post subject: Re: Another festival stage collapse, 5 Dead
PostPosted: Mon Aug 15, 2011 12:28 am 
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broken iris wrote:
Sorry. :oops:


I bet they were dying to see the show.

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 Post subject: Re: Another festival stage collapse, 5 Dead
PostPosted: Mon Aug 15, 2011 1:59 am 
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As if we needed more evidence that LW is a dickhead.

That video is awful to watch.

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 Post subject: Re: Another festival stage collapse, 5 Dead
PostPosted: Mon Aug 15, 2011 2:26 am 
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sounds like due diligence was done on the promoters/staff side in keeping up to date on any storms in the area.

and agreed, I could only watch the video once.

Strong wind topples stage at Ind. fair, killing 5
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By TOM LoBIANCO , 08.14.11, 09:18 PM EDT


INDIANAPOLIS -- The summer evening at the Indiana State Fair turned strangely cold. The wind blew hard, then harder still, tearing the fabric from the roof of the wobbling grandstand stage.

The crowd, waiting under a thunderous sky for the country duo Sugarland to perform Saturday, had just been told over the loudspeakers that severe weather was possible. They were told where to seek shelter if an evacuation was necessary, but none was ordered. The show, it seemed, was to go on.

None of the phone calls workers had made to the National Weather Service prepared them for the 60 to 70 mph gust that blew a punishing cloud of dirt, dust and rain down the fairground's main thoroughfare. The massive rigging and lighting system covering the stage tilted forward, then plummeted onto the front of the crowd in a sickening thump.

Five people were killed, four of them at the scene, where dozens ran forward to help the injured while others ran for shelter out of fear that the devastation had only begun. Dozens of people - including several children - remained hospitalized Sunday, some with life-threatening injuries.

"Women were crying. Children were crying. Men were crying," fairgoer Mike Zent said.

The fair canceled all activities Sunday as officials began the long process of determining what happened and fielded difficult questions about whether the tragedy could have been prevented.

"We're all very much in mourning," Cindy Hoye, the fair's executive director, said during a news conference Sunday. "It's a very sad day at the state fair."

Gov. Mitch Daniels called the accident an "unthinkable tragedy" and said the wind burst was a "fluke" that no one could have foreseen. Dan McCarthy, chief meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Indiana, said the burst of wind was far stronger than gusts in other areas of the fairgrounds.

The seemingly capricious nature of the gust was evident Sunday at the fair, where crews placed a blue drape around the grandstand to block the view of the wreckage. A striped tent nearby appeared unscathed, as did an aluminum trailer about 50 yards away. The Ferris wheel on the midway also escaped damage.

First Sgt. Dave Bursten of the Indiana State Police said the lack of damage to structures on the fair's midway or elsewhere supported the weather service's belief that an isolated, significant wind gust caused the rigging to topple.

"All of us know without exception in Indiana the weather can change from one report to another report, and that was the case here," he said.

The stage toppled at 8:49 p.m. A timeline released by Indiana State Police shows that fair staff contacted the weather service four times between 5:30 and 8 p.m. At 8 p.m., the weather service said a storm with hail and 40 mph winds was expected to hit the fairgrounds at 9:15 p.m.

Bursten said fair officials had begun preparing in case they needed to evacuate visitors for the impending storm. At 8:30, additional state troopers moved to the grandstand to help in the event of an evacuation, according to the timeline.

Meteorologist John Hendrickson said it's not unusual for strong winds to precede a thunderstorm, and that Saturday's gust might have been channeled through the stage area by buildings on either side of the dirt track where the stage fell, at the bottom of the grandstand.

Fair officials said the Indiana Occupational Health and Safety Administration and state fire marshal's office were investigating. Bursten said the investigation could take months.

The owner of Mid-America Sound Corp., which installed the rigging, expressed sympathy for the families of those killed or injured. Kerry Darrenkamp also said the Greenfield, Ind.-based company had begun "an independent internal investigation to understand, to the best of our ability, what happened."

Zent, of Los Angeles, said the storm instantly transformed what had been a hot, sunny day.

"Just everything turned black. ... It was really cold, it was like winter, because I had been sweating all day. Wind blew over the ATM machine," Zent said.

He and his girlfriend, Jess Bates, were behind the grandstand when the heard a noise - the stage collapse. They began running as the wind buffeted them.

Bates said a woman who had been in the second row of the concert with her teenage daughter grabbed her and sobbed as she recounted pulling her daughter to safety while others rushed forward to try to help those pinned beneath the scaffolding.

"She was gripping me very tight, and I could just feel her shaking," Bates said. "She said, `My daughter is all I have in this world and I almost lost her tonight,'" Bates said.

Dr. Dean Silas, a gastroenterologist from Deerfield, Ill., said it took about five minutes to work his way from the grandstands to the track after the collapse. He saw three bodies covered with plastic when he arrived.

He said it took about 25 minutes for volunteers and emergency workers to remove victims from beneath the rigging and load them onto makeshift stretchers.

"There had to be 75 to 100 people there helping out," he said.

Bursten identified those killed as Alina Bigjohny, 23, of Fort Wayne; Christina Santiago, 29, of Chicago; Tammy Vandam, 42, of Wanatah; and two Indianapolis residents: 49-year-old Glenn Goodrich ( GR - news - people ) and 51-year-old Nathan Byrd. Byrd, a stagehand who was atop the rigging when it fell, died overnight.

Jennifer Nettles of Sugarland sent a statement to The Associated Press through her marketing manager, saying she watched video of the collapse on the news "in horror."

"I am so moved," she said. "Moved by the grief of those families who lost loved ones. Moved by the pain of those who were injured and the fear of their families. Moved by the great heroism as I watched so many brave Indianapolis fans actually run toward the stage to try and help lift and rescue those injured. Moved by the quickness and organization of the emergency workers who set up the triage and tended to the injured."

Jason Owen, who manages marketing, press and creative for the band, said Sugarland was in a prayer circle before their performance. The band members were held off stage by the tour manager because of the weather before the stage collapsed.

Sugarland - Nettles and Kristian Bush - canceled their Sunday show at the Iowa State Fair.

Concert-goers and other witnesses said an announcer warned them of impending bad weather but gave conflicting accounts of whether emergency sirens at the fair sounded. Some fair workers said they never heard any warnings.

"It's pathetic. It makes me mad," said groundskeeper Roger Smith. "Those lives could have been saved yesterday."

Fair spokesman Andy Klotz said the damage was so sudden and isolated that he wasn't sure sirens would have done any good.

Indiana is prone to volatile changes in weather. In April 2006, tornado-force winds hit Indianapolis just after thousands of people left a free outdoor concert by John Mellencamp held as part of the NCAA men's Final Four basketball tournament. And in May 2004, a tornado touched down south of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, delaying the start of the Indianapolis 500 and forcing a nearly two-hour interruption in the race.

Daniels stood by the fair and its officials as they prepared to reopen Monday with a public memorial service to honor the victims.

"This is the finest event of its kind in America, this is the finest one we've ever had, and this desperately sad ... fluke event doesn't change that," he said.

Sunday's accident was the worst at the Indiana fairgrounds since a 1963 explosion at the fairgrounds coliseum killed 74 people attending an ice skating show.

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 Post subject: Re: Another festival stage collapse, 5 Dead
PostPosted: Mon Aug 15, 2011 1:06 pm 
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That structure looked pretty flimsy, like it was begging to be blown over. Pretty scary phenomenon. One minute you're waiting for a concert the next minute you're running for your life.

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 Post subject: Re: Another festival stage collapse, 5 Dead
PostPosted: Tue Aug 16, 2011 4:56 am 
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Man, that blows.

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 Post subject: Re: Another festival stage collapse, 5 Dead
PostPosted: Wed Aug 17, 2011 12:00 am 
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New York-based engineering firm to investigate Indiana stage collapse
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By the CNN Wire Staff
August 16, 2011 -- Updated 2227 GMT (0627 HKT)

(CNN) -- The Indiana State Fair Commission is hiring New York-based engineering company Thornton Tomasetti Inc. to investigate Saturday's deadly stage collapse, officials said Tuesday.

Personnel from the company have already arrived on site and begun their investigation. They are expected to deliver a report with their findings and recommendations to the commission, which will make it public.

Thornton Tomasetti, founded in 1956, has worked on a variety of high-profile projects, including ones in the aftermath of the 2007 Interstate 35 bridge collapse in Minneapolis and the 9/11 attacks in New York City.

The company's investigation should run parallel to those being done by the Indiana State Police and the Indiana Occupational Safety and Health Administration, said Indiana State Fair Commission Chairman Andre Lacy.

"Our goal is to learn everything we can why this tragedy occurred. We won't leave any question unanswered, from both a structural standpoint and the decision that was made," he said. "We know that many are eager for answers today. We don't have them. And we won't speculate."

Lacy spoke to reporters at an afternoon press conference in Indianapolis, where officials fielded questions about what could have caused or contributed to the collapse.

The accident occurred shortly before the country music duo Sugarland was to take the stage before an audience of about 12,000 Saturday night. Five people were killed and at least 40 were injured.

Metal scaffolding fell onto the "Sugarpit," a section usually occupied by Sugarland's most ardent fans, just minutes after authorities took the stage to warn the crowd to seek shelter, according to a timeline of events released by investigators.

Indiana State Fair spokesman Andy Klotz said officials had made the decision to evacuate and that people were on their way to make the announcement when the storm hit.

Video of the accident shows blue canvas top fraying and flapping seconds before the steel scaffolding gave way, sending a heavy bank of stage lights and metal onto fans closest to the outdoor stage.

Forecasters had warned heavy rain and strong winds would hit the fair nearly two hours before the storm moved through Saturday. The National Weather Service estimated winds at 60 to 70 mph.

"We followed a protocol very directly. It was working. This was a freakish act of God and I don't know how it could have been prevented," Klotz said.

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 Post subject: Re: Another festival stage collapse, 5 Dead
PostPosted: Wed Aug 17, 2011 12:04 am 
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 Post subject: Re: Another festival stage collapse, 5 Dead
PostPosted: Thu Aug 18, 2011 11:31 pm 
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Three killed, 70 injured at Belgium music festival
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Three people have been killed and more than 70 injured at an open-air music festival in Belgium.

11:10PM BST 18 Aug 2011

The Chateau stage at Belgium's Pukkelpop festival, near the town of Hasselt, was apparently destroyed when bad weather caused trees to fall over. A second stage collapsed but it is not thought to have fallen on any concertgoers. Some giant screens also fell down.

A crisis centre has been set up in a gymnasium in Kiewit to help those who have been lightly injured or in shock.

Festival-goer Catherine Blaise told Le Soir newspaper: “The sky suddenly turned pitch black and we took shelter waiting for the rain. Then suddenly, there was a downpour. The wind blew violently.

“There were hailstones bigger than a centimeter falling... Trees toppled over. It was unbelievable, the end of the world.”

"It was frightening. It looked terrible. All the structures collapsed," said Brinnie Gardner, 20, of Aukland, New Zealand, who is on a tour of Europe with a friend. "There was panic. It was crazy."

Hugo Simons, Hasselt's head of emergency medical planning, told VRT radio that three people had died, 11 had been severely injured and 60 had sustained light injuries as a result of the storm.

Organisers estimated that 60,000 people were at the three-day festival, which started Thursday, when the storm broke. Many were streaming out of the grounds after the storm, which turned the festival site into a scene of mud and destruction within about 10 minutes.

Cullen Omori, of the band Smith Westerns, who was on the stage at the time, tweeted: "Stage collapsed max almost got crushed by the trees. I hope pukkelpop has insurance bc all our ---- is broke." He later tweeted: "Apologise to anyone who mistook tweet. Wrote directly after running offstage. Just found out the extent of damage. All of prays go out."

Jared Leto, the actor and frontman of the US band Thirty Seconds to Mars, wrote on his own microblogging site: "Four stages down – still raining + thunder if you are here please be safe.

"Serious injuries att he festival. More bad weather poses heading this way. Please take care and caution."

Pukkelpop, which started on Thursday is an annual three-day event with headlining acts this year including the Foo Fighters and Eminem. Reports say some 60,000 people are attending the event. In 2009 it attracted some 180,000 people over the course of three days. It has been running since 1985.

Last year, the festival attracted controversy when the lead singer of the British electropop group Ou Est Le Swimming Pool died. Charles Haddon, 22, leapt to his death from a telecommunications mast being the main stage. Another musician, 60-year-old Michael Been, the former frontman of the US band the Call died after suffering a heart attack.

The stage collapse is the second such fatal incident in less than a week. On Sunday, at least five people were killed and more than 40 injured when a sudden storm caused a concert stage to collapse in during the Indiana State Fair in the US.

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 Post subject: Re: Another festival stage collapse: Belgium- 3 Dead
PostPosted: Fri Aug 19, 2011 4:50 pm 
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I was going to be there, opted out. Went to pick up two nieces at 2am. I was up all night trying to find out if all friends that were there, were safe. (so far so good). I can totally not believe what I saw. I can totally not believe how the organisation is being blamed.

I have no idea why this article feels the need to include those things from last year. It has absolutely zero to do with this. THey might as well have written: "20 years ago, Kurt Cobain played on that festival and he died as well".


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 Post subject: Re: Another festival stage collapse: Belgium- 5 Dead
PostPosted: Sat Aug 20, 2011 4:32 am 
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Belgian festival left shredded by storm, 5 dead
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MARK CARLSON, Associated Press
Updated 04:47 p.m., Friday, August 19, 2011

HASSELT, Belgium (AP) — The Britrock band Skunk Anansie had the crowd hopping and gyrating when a sudden, fierce storm began pelting the main stage — and the thousands watching them — with rain and hail.

The storm shredded the annual Pukkelpop outdoor rock festival Thursday evening, blowing down huge canvas tents, uprooting trees and flinging multistory metal scaffolding towers and racks of concert lights across the grounds.

Organizers said five people were killed and 140 injured, 10 of them seriously.

Skin, the band's lead singer, described the chaos on the band's Facebook page, saying "a burning hot sunny day turned into a mini-hurricane."

"(A) tower fell onto our truck, we had to run for our lives mid-set as hail hit the stage and the wind began to tear it to pieces," she wrote. "This was the scariest moment I have ever seen or felt in my 20 years of being an artist."

Toon van Wemmel, 26, a graphic designer from nearby Leuven, said "the hailstones came down so hard they caused bruises." He and his partner ran away from the main stage, turned around and saw trees crashing down where they had stood less than a minute earlier.

Officials said the dead were all Belgians, ranging in age from 15 to 59. They were not immediately identified.

Officials canceled the last two days of the three-day Pukkelpop festival Friday and blamed unprecedented weather conditions in the town 50 miles (80 kilometers) east of Brussels.

Hilde Claes, the mayor of Hasselt, spoke of a "nightmare" and said the town had never seen a storm like the one Thursday.

"I have seen many tropical storms, but this was unprecedented," said Chokri Mahassine, organizer of the annual festival that began in 1985.

The storm lasted barely 5 minutes. As the sky darkened, some of the 60,000-strong festival crowd ran for shelter from the rain and hail into the tents of caterers and festival sponsors.

But Claes said three huge tents buckled under the force of the wind and the weight of the hail, sending hundreds back outdoors. As tent poles buckled, canvas roofs shredded, flapping in tatters in the wind. Video showed panicked concertgoers crawling out from under the downed tents and running through fields of mud to safety.

"We were dancing away and it (the shelter) caved in in the middle and people were screaming and running away," one sodden young woman told Associated Press Television News.

Dr. Pascal Vranckx of Jessa Hospital in Hasselt said many of the injured were hit on the head by flying or falling debris. The seriously wounded were taken to hospitals while others were treated at a local sports center.

"There are still three patients in critical condition, fighting for their lives," Vranckx told reporters.

The storm sent thousands of mud-splattered youngsters, many shoeless, looking for train and bus transport home. Others stayed on the campground overnight, hoping the festival would resume Friday. Organizers deployed extra trains and buses to ferry the concertgoers home.

Claes and Mahassine said they received no advance warning of the storm that struck about 6 p.m. — a claim disputed by the Belgian weather office and VRT, the country's Dutch-language public broadcaster.

VRT weather woman Sabine Hagedoren said alerts were issued for "intense rain and storm showers with a chance of hail and fierce wind gusts." In an email to The Associated Press, she said an "orange" weather alert was issued — the second most serious.

"Unfortunately we cannot predict in which region — let alone in which town or city — the most serious thunderstorms will occur. But, definitely, an alert was issued for severe thunderstorms," she wrote.

Belgian weather records show similarly powerful storms have struck eastern Belgium every year since 2008.

Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme offered condolences to the families of the victims and said authorities would continue to help the injured.

The festival featured internationally known acts, including Foo Fighters, Eminem and The Offspring.

"Our hearts go out to everyone affected by the tragic events at Pukkelpop," tweeted the Foo Fighters, whose Thursday night show was canceled after the storm hit.

"This is not how it should be. Oof," tweeted the Fleet Foxes, who had also been scheduled to play Thursday night. The band also used Twitter to assure family and fans that they were safe.

Damien Poinen, an 18-year old Belgian, was one of the many who camped overnight.

"On the one side (canceling the festival) was the right thing to do. On the other side, some still wanted to party," he said. "Considering the people who died here yesterday, I was not going to stay anyway."

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 Post subject: Re: Another festival stage collapse: Belgium- 5 Dead
PostPosted: Sat Aug 20, 2011 4:41 am 
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country music will do that to ya.

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 Post subject: Re: Another festival stage collapse: Belgium- 4 Dead
PostPosted: Mon Aug 22, 2011 8:36 pm 
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**The death toll of the storm incident at Belgian pop festival Pukkelpop has been lowered from five to four. Eight festivalgoers were also seriously injured as the storm that interrupted the event took down screens and tents. Officials attribute the miscount to the chaos of Thursday night, which supposedly included a patient’s death at a local hospital in the toll, though he did not attend the festival. Meanwhile, Rolling Stone reports that a seventh person is close to death due to injuries sustained at the Indiana Stage Fair's stage collapse on August 13. According to RS, 24 year-old Meaghan Toothman is on life support but her family has released a statement that she will be taken off support this afternoon. Five people died at the fair on Saturday, August 13, with a sixth passing away this past Friday.

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 Post subject: Re: Another festival stage collapse: Belgium- 4 Dead
PostPosted: Tue Aug 23, 2011 7:07 am 
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Are you guys insinuating that traveling music festivals and state fairs are not the safest, most up-to-code places one can be?

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