Yet another festival stage has collapsed, killing three people at the Pukkelpop Festival in Belgium. A huge storm ran headlong in to the event, uprooting trees which brought down rigging and led to the collapse of the Chateau Stage and other stages and tents around the festival.
Around 60,000 people were in attendance at the festival in Hasselt, approximately 65 kilometres east of the Belgian capital, Brussels. Television pictures showed rain soaked festival goers being battered by strong winds amidst fallen rigging and debris.
Speaking of the big tent collapse, a spectator was quoted as saying “It was utter confusion, mass panic, people were trying to get out of this tent that collapsed by using their pocket knives and cutting holes in the fabric.” Pukkelpop attempted to lift the large tent with two cranes but the ground had been turned into swamp rendering the machinery useless.
Jared Leto, frontman with 30 Seconds To Mars, who were due to headline the main stage said on his personal Twitter page “CRAZY STORM AT PUKKELPOP IN BELGIUM – NOT SURE WE WILL BE ABLE TO GO ON STAGE – STAY TUNED. SAFETY FIRST.”
Hotly tipped US band The Smith Westerns, who were playing on the collapsed Chateau Stage when it gave way beneath them, declared on Twitter that all their gear had been destroyed, stating “Stage collapsed max almost got crushed by the tress, I hope pukkelpop has insurance bc all our shit is broke.”
Then, perhaps remembering that had it lucky compared to some, the stated : “Praying no-one got hurt.”
This is the fourth stage collapse to hit a festival in recent weeks, with storms demolishing a stage at the Indiana State Fair last week killing five, the collapse of Cheap Trick’s stage at the Ottawa Blues Festival in which miraculously no-one was seriously hurt, and the Flaming Lips’ stage collapsing in their hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma.
It’s also the second year in a row for tragedy to strike the Pukkelpop Festival. Last year’s event saw the suicide of Charles Haddon, front man for British synth sensations Ou Est Le Swimming Pool, who leaped to his death off a telecommunications tower.
Watch dramatic footage of the chaos
