Hallo Gemeinde,
es geht wieder los. In Memphis wurde das "Beale Street Music Festival" trotz Tornado-Vorwarnung durchgeführt und dann evakuiert. Auf einer der Bühnen wurde das Bühnendach planlos und mit vollem Licht an abgelassen, während darunter die Band ihr Equipment zusammenpackte. Ein Motor blockierte bei der Aktion und verursachte Sachschäden und -zum Glück- leichte Verletzungen bei einigen Kollegen.
http://www.plsn.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5689&Itemid=1
"May Day in Memphis: A Near Miss at the Beale Street Music Festival
MEMPHIS, TN - Thunderstorms had passed through Memphis the morning May 1, so there was a feeling of gratitude in the air, along with sunshine, when the three-day Beale Street Music Festival got back underway on its second day. Few knew a storm cell packing 135 mph winds would soon be heading their way.
Close to 40,000 music fans filled Tom Lee Park along the banks of the Mississippi. Even with the threat of further stormy weather coming in later than evening, it was easy to dismiss the risk. The air was calm, the music was pleasant, and the biggest threat from the sky seemed to be a bit of light drizzle.
But as the skies darkened, Scott Chamryk with Premier Global Productions was getting updates from sheriff's department and NOAA officials who had been on site, tracking radar reports of approaching thunderstorms.
The radar forecasts went from uncertain to ominous, and a consensus emerged. A super cell storm system packing 135 mph winds was heading directly for the festival site. It was time to pull the plug.
Tornado sirens wailed, prepared emergency announcements were played on the P.A. system, and Music in May, the festival organizer, put its evacuation procedures into gear. Tens of thousands of fans started leaving the festival grounds.
By now there was some light drizzle falling from the night sky, but still not much wind. But as some crew members were scrambling to protect gear in case the drizzle turned into a downpour, others were fearing something worse than mere rain.
"It was a chaotic moment," admits Chamryk, who was well aware of the strength of the storm cell bearing down on the festival site. Knowing that the worst of the storm might only be 15 minutes away, Chamryk sought to minimize risk from flying debris by lowering the truss-mounted lighting fixtures and the roof - a task normally done over the course of 30 minutes to an hour.
Peter Moshay, production manager with Hall & Oates, which had been three songs into their show on the Sam's Town stage when the festival was abruptly cancelled, heard the sirens, but had no idea that a tornado-producing storm cell was headed straight for the site. Judging from the calm air, he figured that danger was at least 30 miles away.
Other show officials maintain that all crew members and performers were ordered to leave the stage and seek shelter in their tour buses and vehicles before the lighting truss and roof were lowered. And Chamryk says he was sure that the stage was empty before the lighting truss and roof were lowered.
Moshay says he took the evacuation orders to mean the fans, not the crew. With no clear directive, he felt as though the situation was "every man for himself," and was startled by what he says happened next.
"The lighting crew decided it was a good idea to drop hot (lit with power) lighting trusses to the deck while we were still packing up the band gear. Then someone thought it was a even better idea to drop the roof while we were all on stage. Nobody," he says, "was watching the roof as it came down.
"One motor did not engage and the roof twisted and the motor broke loose dropping the roof onto us. Luckily, a few of us who were onstage at the time hit the deck and were spared as the truss stopped on the sidefills and other pipes...we got away with scrapes and bruises and a sprains.
"All the time that they were dropping trusses and the roof, we were screaming to stop, as they were dropping steel on us as we were packing up onstage. Had there been a professional stage manager at the event, this would have not happened."
Mike Borne, president of Allstar Audio, was not at the Sam's Town stage at the time of the accident but was at the festival, and some of his company's gear was damaged in the Sam's Town roof mishap. (Moonshine Lighting also says it sustained gear damage.)
According to Borne, "there were stage managers assigned to all the stages on site," and adds that "all of the bands and crew had to check in with these stage managers as they arrived." He also maintains that it might have been safer to keep the fixtures lit rather than lower the lighting gear in a darker environment. But his accounting of the events doesn't deviate entirely from Moshay's take on what happened.
"During the safeguarding and battening down of the gear, and subsequent lowering of the roof, an equipment malfunction caused one of the roof hoists to fail, allowing the downstage right corner of the roof to collapse about seven to 10 feet onto our sidefill speakers, and finally rest on the downstage lighting truss," Borne says. "It did not, however, fall all the way from trim height."
Borne does not deny that the festival's Sam's Town stage dodged a bullet. "I think it was a relatively close call, and we were very fortunate, to say the least."
The same could be said for the festival as a whole. The storm cell appears to have produced a tornado that tracked along the Mississippi river - but the opposite riverbank, not the side the festival was on.
If everyone agrees that things could have been worse, Moshay, who sustained a minor injury to his hand, argues that things could have - and should have - gone smoother. He also voices skepticism that the damaged roof was fit for use the next day. It was put into service for the Sam's Town stage the next day, where Earth, Wind and Fire and others performed.
Premier Global Productions business manager Brian Andrews counters that view, insisting that there was a thorough inspection for weakness and cracks after the incident. "We're talking about steel here, not aluminum," Andrews says. "There were no cracks."
If the Memphis and the Beale Street Festival both emerged relatively unscathed - particularly in light of the more extensive flooding problems caused by the same storm system to the Nashville area - the mishap on May Day underscores an enduring conflict for an industry that tries to embrace "Safety First" as tightly as "The Show Must Go On."
Everybody would agree that "gear can be replaced, but lives can't." But if "Gear vs. Life" is a no-brainer, those working in the live entertainment industry will always be faced with a shifting array of risk-benefit scenarios - gray areas - where risk creeps in.
That's why Music in May decided to go ahead and stage the Beale Street Music Festival in the first place, even though it was conceivable - if unlikely - that it could be torn apart with a direct hit from a twister.
That's also why Moshay and crew were busy packing up gear, with the wail of tornado sirens in the distance, instead of simply leaving the gear behind until the risk of severe weather had passed."
Es hätte schlimmer kommen können und zeigt umso mehr die Notwendigkeit von existierenden und kommunizierten Notfallplänen und dem "A... in der Hose", diese auch umzusetzen.
