CHICAGO (AP) — When thunderstorms slammed New York's Central Park before this summer's highly anticipated Black Eyed Peas concert, officials made the rare decision to call off the event. Tens of thousands of fans were livid, but safety experts praise the decision for bucking the industry's aversion to such last-minute cancellations.
As the multi-billion-dollar outdoor concert
business has evolved from little more than shows under a canopied stage to
productions featuring up to 20 tons of lighting and video equipment, experts
point to the Indiana State Fair's fatal stage collapse and several similar accidents
as evidence of the necessity for caution — and regulation.
"It's the Wild West when it comes to standards
and guidance and consistency," said Paul Wertheimer, founder of the
consulting service Crowd Management Strategies. "People from place to place
can do whatever they want."
Concert mayhem is neither new nor unique. Eleven
people died as crowds pushed their way into a 1979 The Who concert in
Cincinnati. The Indiana collapse that killed five people and injured dozens of
others Saturday, when powerful winds toppled a huge stage onto an audience
awaiting Sugarland show, was among several more recent incidents.
What's changed over time is the size of the events
and pressures on promoters.
Academy of Country Music CEO Bob Romeo, who has
more than three decades of music promoting experience, remembers when the first
stage tops were built simply to provide shade from the sun. Now, as productions
expand to include massive video equipment and up to 40,000 pounds of lights,
Romeo says he has to balance safety concerns with putting on the best possible
show.
"Any promoter you would talk to that's done
outdoor shows probably saw the video of what happened in Indianapolis and said,
'That could be me. That could be any of my colleagues.' At one time or another,
if you do enough outdoor shows, you are going to face those scenarios," he
said.
Romeo said he decided last year, when the televised
ACM Awards found it needed to accommodate more fans than its MGM Grand event
space in Las Vegas could hold, to go with additional indoor space at Mandalay
Bay.
"Whenever you're outside, there's a risk. It
just is. It's an inherent risk. It's been in the fair and festival business
from day one," he said. "I think what you saw happen in Indianapolis
was just a tragic event we try to prepare for as best we can."
With album sales dwindling and record companies
struggling, artists depend on concert ticket sales and merchandising to boost
their bottom line more than ever. Revenues for the 100 top-selling North
American tours were $1.1 billion for the first half of 2011, a rise of 16
percent following lackluster sales in 2010.
Promoters say they can't disappoint the fans who by
those tickets.
"There's an expectation," said Jacob
Worek, who runs Portland, Ore.,-based Event Safety Consultants. "If you're
going to spend that money, you're going to be given a bigger show."
U2's 360 Tour, which featured a massive revolving
stage with claw-like legs and a gigantic video screen behind the band, was one
of last year's top-grossing concerts. The stage took days to set up and tear
down and involved more than 100 semi-truck loads of equipment. Tickets ran
upward of $250.
The expansive approach has extended to music
festivals nationwide.
Over 20 years, Lollapalooza has grown from a 1-day
amphitheater event to a 3-day festival featuring more than 130 bands and
artists on stages in a downtown Chicago park. The festival grossed more than
$21 million last year and drew a record 270,000 people this year with
headliners like Eminem and Coldplay.
But even smaller festivals feel the crunch.
"Bigger and better is what everyone wants, and
more elaborate," said Jack Hammer, executive director of the Three Rivers
Festival in Fort Wayne, Ind., a nine-day event that includes rides, games and
concerts. One show there drew about 7,500 people last month.
Safety regulations, experts say, haven't kept up
the pace in part because they aren't standard. No single government agency
oversees or sets rules for outdoor concerts, leaving a range of guidelines across
events.
The Indiana State Fair had a one-page emergency
plan with only general bullet points and fair officials aren't sure whether
anyone is supposed to inspect stages. No one inspects the stage at the Three
Rivers Festival. Chicago, meanwhile, has some of the strictest standards in the
country and requires outdoor events — including Lollapalooza and Pitchfork — to
pass the city's building codes, have a wind gauge on stage and provide a
"high wind action plan" for what organizers will do if gusts go above
30 mph.
Still, organizers and host cities cite improvements
available to events that seek them out. For example, updated weather-tracking
technology can give festival and fair organizers warnings well ahead of
hazardous storms.
When Oprah Winfrey closed down Chicago's Michigan
Avenue in 2009 to film her season premiere with a performance by the Black Eyed
Peas, the stage was equipped with not only a wind gauge but a full on weather
center.
Indiana State Fair officials acknowledged Wednesday
that the fair did not follow its one-page severe weather emergency plan before
Saturday's collapse and that fans should have been told that the National
Weather Service had issued a severe thunderstorm warning.
Alan Morgenstern, who owns Morningstar Productions,
a Southern California-based company that has provided stages for musicians like
Billy Ray Cyrus and events like Comic-Con, said more attention needs to be
focused on keeping people on or near stages safe as they continue to grow.
"The guys who work for me are extremely
careful and take time to go the extra mile for safety, and I think that's the
key," he said. "You really have to think that when you're putting
something over people's heads, it's got to be safe."
The Black Eyed Peas announced Wednesday that their
canceled charity show will be rescheduled for Sept. 30 in Central Park.
Caitlin R. King in Nashville, Tenn., John Rogers in
Los Angeles, Tom Coyne in South Bend, Ind., and Nekesa Mumbi Moody in New York
contributed to this report.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.
(AP
Photo/Darron Cummings)
