Five Dead in Yet Another Stage Collapse

By Lenni Rosenblum Fri., Aug. 19 2011 at 12:00 PM

Categories: News

First came Cheap Trick's disastrous performance at the Ottawa Bluesfest. Thankfully nobody was badly hurt in that disaster. Next came the Flaming Lips' lighting rig in Oklahoma. The band wound up with $800,000 worth of damaged equipment. Last weekend it happened with Sugarland at the Indiana State Fair. Misfortune has struck again: another stage collapsed in Belgium on Thursday.

The Smith Westerns' stage collapsed at this weekend's Pukkelpop this weekend killing five and injuring 75 people. A strong rainstorm came through the festival grounds in Hasselt, Belgium and destroyed tents and uprooted trees. The Smith Westerns' stage was totaled and another stage was damaged.

"I made a comment about Cheap Trick and we were about to play the next one when our tour manager yelled at me to run off the stage," the band's frontman Cullen Omori said. "Right then the tress collapsed one foot in front of Max. After the rescue teams started coming in it became clear that there were severe injuries and we are now being told there are reports of multiple deaths. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families who lost loved ones in today's tragedy."

The rest of the Pukkelpop Festival has been canceled.