Prophetic Words from John Huddleston on Stage Collapses
From time to time mobile Production monthly writes stories that profile various companies that service the needs of the production industry. Such was the case when we called Upstaging’s Managing Director of Lighting Services John Huddleston. The intention was to talk about Josh Groban’s current Straight To You tour, Paul McCartney, Rihanna, Katy Perry and all the other great tours they have out this summer. On any other day that is exactly how it would have gone.
Unfortunately, on this day Huddleston was a little busy replacing lighting equipment and trucks Upstaging lost when the [promoter supplied] roof collapsed in the already famous incident at the Ottawa Bluesfest on July 18, 2011. Therefore, he wasn’t in the mood to have a “blue skies” chat about how good things are, despite the fact that things are going quite well for the company in general. But that didn’t mean he didn’t want to talk. He just had a different topic in mind.
“Can you imagine getting a call that a loved one was harmed or killed in a stage collapse?” he asked. “You can’t just leave it at being a horrible news story on the other side of a TV screen or a story on the internet. We’re talking about a fan, stagehand, crew member, band member, mother, son, daughter and father.”
It would be one thing if this were an isolated once in a decade phenomenon, but such is not the case, which is at the heart of Huddleston’s consternation. “Stages collapse every year. Just look it up on Youtube or Google ‘stage collapse’ and several photos and stories come up! When these things happen everyone in the industry just passes the stories around shakes their head at how bad it was or could have been, but nothing gets done. Who’s doing something about it?”
One thing that Huddleston is careful to make clear it that he’s not trying to engage circular firing squad of finger pointing. “I don’t know the reason it happens. I’m not blaming anyone. I’m just asking, as an industry what are we doing willing to do better to make sure this doesn’t happen? How are we keeping our shows safe? I always hear that at the last second people are pulled off the stage and they run from the disaster ‘just in time.’”
According to Huddleston there were several people directly behind the stage when the roof fell back directly over them. Had it not come to rest on one of Upstaging’s trucks parked nearby there would have been a much different story to tell. But he is not concerned about the damage to the truck or the lighting system that was lost. There are bigger issues to be dealt with. “I don’t care about the truck or the equipment. I really don’t. The insurance companies will sort all that out. I’m a lot more concerned about the fact that our driver got injured and others were lucky not to be killed.”
With all of this being said, Huddleston is not one to complain without offering suggestive solutions. “What I think should happen immediately on a gig like this is when a production manager or a department head roll off the bus they should meet with a site safety officer who will say here’s how ‘we’re working today’. This should happen even before going to the rigger and marking the floor. This person would have all of the data regarding weather forecast, stage evacuation and all the other information needed for this environment. It’s not right for a production manager to have to become an engineer or a meteorologist for the day.”
Huddleston admits that there are standards in place for outdoor show sites but questions how strictly they are being enforced by the industry. He also wonders if they go far enough. However, he does identify one area where much, if not all, of this can be clearly laid out and sternly imposed. “Bands have a lot of power to request all kinds of things such as catering, security, dressing room sofas, etc. How about adding temporary structure requirements to the rider?”
He laid out a rough sketch of such a rider addendum regarding the aforementioned morning meeting with the venue safety officer which would outline the following:
• Stage engineering certificates and safety procedures / statements
• Break-away weather / wind protection (stage curtains are in place and fastened with proper hold downs that will release)
• On-site weather station monitoring wind speed, lightning and direction of storms
• Connection to local emergency departments for weather warnings
• On-site emergency personnel and fire watch
• The presence of a show electrician that can turn off power always on-standby and can show you how the power was run that day to keep people safe
• Evacuation plan for venue AND stage with battery operated lighting for pathways
• Storm shelters ?
“These are things that come from the top of my head,” Huddleston admits. “I’m sure there are MANY more suggestions out there regarding steps we can take to try and keep people safe. Maybe at the next Tour Link Conference, instead of talking about how we designed the latest mega-show, we can talk about ways to make sure everyone comes home from that mega-show.”
The recent stage collapse in Ottawa was really a close call, the latest of far too many. If the stage would have fallen forward on the audience, lots of families would have gotten “the call”. As it was, had the stage not landed on top of a semi parked backstage there would have surely been several deaths related to this incident. So everyone walks away saying, “We sure were lucky on that one…” AGAIN.
But in the absence of preparation all that’s left is luck. So what is there in the absence of luck?
We’ll see you at Tour Link. And we will find time to discuss...