A crowd of more than 120 people were forced to evacuate the launch of a Perth-based arts and music festival following a section of the floor at the venue collapsing.
The Flying Scotsman pub and its upstairs Defectors bar was hosting the official launch for the Beaufort Street Festival on Wednesday night when the pub’s second-floor gave way minutes into the launch.
Though media, staff, and patrons were evacuated to safety, the Beaufort Street Festival may lose one of its key venues as a result of the collapse, as WA Today reports
Aaron Rutter of festival managers JumpClimb, was among the 120 or so in attendance – approximately a third of the venue’s capacity, and tells The Music there was a “big smash sound and the floor dropped a considerable amount,” just ten minutes into the opening speeches for the launch.
Gemma Dunthorne, another patron at the upstairs Defectors Bar tells WA Today that the shake to the upstairs Defectors Bar at around 7.45pm felt like an earthquake.
“It all happened pretty quickly,” she said. “They’d just started the presentations for the launch and there were a couple of speeches happening and then it all happened at once, half the room just dropped. The screen was shaking and then the wall behind the bar with all the liquor on it fell down on an angle; all the liquor fell off the wall and all the staff just got rained on.”
Staff reportedly responded quickly, safely directing patrons to exits and urging them to evacuate. “We got out fairly quickly,” says Ms Dunthorne; “it took them longer to get the people out of the bottom of the building, I don’t think they had even noticed.”
(The scene outside the pub after the evacuation. Image: Claire Grantham Channel 10. Source: WA Today )
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City Of Vincent Mayor John Carney said the incident felt like a truck hitting the pub, believing that the collapse was owing to structural problems at the venue. “When we came downstairs we looked through and we could see structural cracks around the column,” the outgoing chairperson of the Beaufort Street Network noted.
“It was a different way to launch the Beaufort Street Festival but the important thing was that everyone got out safe and sound,” he adds. “The owners responded quickly last night, they evacuated the whole building so they responded as they should and quickly.”
Cr Carney and constituents assessed the damage to the Flying Scotsman on Thursday following the collapse, but with a full report pending, they could not be sure if the pub would be safe or fixed in time for the Beaufort Street Festival, taking place on Saturday 16th November.
A bill of nine local bands, including Harlequin League, The Floors, and Mt. Mountain, are scheduled to play at the venue – one of four main stages involved in the Beaufort Street Festival, but organisers may have to come up with other plans following the Defectors Bar collapse.
“I’ll wait for the initial assessment to come but I’m sure like the owners the key priority is the safety of patrons and that it gets fixed promptly with safety in mind,” says Cr Carney.
Mr Rutter note that the venue played a “major part” in the festival, but said safety was the primary concern. “They obviously play a huge part in the festival but we have contingencies in place,” he says.
“We won’t be able to make a call on that until they have an assessment and we’d certainly hope they can be involved as they usually are but the number one priority at the end of the day is safety.”
Mr Rutter also praised the Flying Scotsman staff for their part in ensuring those in attendance evacuated the building safely and quickly. “Given that they are pretty narrow stairs, everyone did a really good job getting everyone out safely within two minutes,” he says.
A statement from the venue issued on Thursday read: “We will have the best pub in P-town back up and running, business as usual, as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience and apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused.”
Beaufort Street Festival 2014
Music Arts Food Fashion
Saturday 16th November, 2014
The Flying Scotsman Stage
12pm Amanda Merzdan
1pm Villain
2pm Special Brew
3pm Apache
4pm Husband
5pm Red Engine Caves
6pm Mt. Mountain
7pm The Floors
8pm Harlequin League
Saturday 16th Nov – 12 – 9pm
