Tragedy struck on both continents this past week. Those of us with rental and staging business can appreciate how difficult it is to provide outdoor entertainment that is popular by demand. Add that to the pernicious weather that we are seeing more and more of these days… and disaster can strike.

The fact remains: you don’t often equate ProAV with life and death but that’s exactly what can be at stake.

Nathan Byrd was a spotlight operator and stage builder. He was perched in the rigging above the stage when violent wind hit the stage at the Indiana State Fair last Saturday and toppled the structure. He and three others died that night, and 45 others were injured as the Grandstand collapsed in winds. Victims are suing. “The parties responsible for this operation should have known that and should have realized that this storm was going to have damaging winds, potentially large hail and posed a serious threat to the fairgoers and they ignored it,” says the victim’s lawyers.

Here in Europe, tragedy also struck a stage this month at Belgium’s annual Pukkelpop outdoor rock festival. Five died as a storm took down the stage, blew away heavy canvas tents, uprooted trees and tossed metal scaffolding and concert lights across the grounds.

140 injured, 10 of them seriously, as a hot sunny day in Belgium turned into a mini-hurricane with hailstones so hard they caused bruises.

Victims and their families try to make sense of what happened and why, and often blame a human element because nature is not a good listener and can’t be held accountable. For all our years on this planet, all our science… we hardly are able to get a good weather prediction. Even scientists freely admit they don’t yet really understand how the simple-looking clouds we view in the sky work.

Rental and staging companies will find insurance more expensive now. And we can expect the weather to be more unpredictable, not less, as the climate change debates range. We need to build with extreme expectations in mind and always document our concern about weather conditions… despite event organizers who might like to save money and cut corners.

Watch Indiana State Fair stage collapse

Go Pukkelpop Disaster (in Dutch)

Go Pukkelpop Disaster (in Engl