Music

Pukkelpop festival cancelled after yesterday's stage collapse kills 5 and injures 75

by Tyler Munro

The Pukkelpop festival in Belgium has cancelled its final two days after a stage collapsed yesterday, killing 5 and injuring 75 more. Following stage collapses in Ottawa and Indiana, the festival’s Chateau stage was completely torn apart while the Shelter stage saw moderate damage after a storm swept through the festival grounds.

A statement on the Pukkelpop website reads as follows:

Pukkelpop is in deep mourning. We truly sympathise with the families and friends of the victims. Words are not enough. We have struggled with the decision to continue the festival. Therefore we have decided to cancel Pukkelpop 2011. What has happened is very exceptional and could not have been predicted. We are deeply moved by all the spontaneous support the festival goers and the organisation have received. We call on all Pukkelpoppers to return home calmly. Extra buses and trains have been organised to bring everybody home. Undoubtedly many of you have many practical questions. That is why we ask you to direct them to info@pukkelpop.be. We ask everyone to understand that this decision was extremely difficult to make.

Smith Westerns frontman Cullen Omori has issued a statement on the incident (below). The Chicago band had just started their set on the Chateau stage when the storm started picking up.

We had just finished the first song of our set at Pukkelpop when the stage/tent started shaking and simply thought it was a storm passing through. 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. Right  then the tress collapsed 1 foot in front of Max. At this point we thought only the stage broke, not the tent.  Amid the chaos it was hard to tell exactly what had happened, but 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.

This is a tragedy and trend we can’t help but be saddened by. Our condolences are with the deceased and best wishes with the injured. We hope the staging industry can come together and find a solution to these disastrous tragedies in a time when the weather probably won’t be getting anything but worse. [via Consequence of Sound]