Truly scary news coming out of the Ottawa Bluesfest. A sudden massive storm during Cheap Trick’s set (and less than an hour before Death Cab were scheduled to take the stage) caused the main stage to collapse.
From what we can gather from initial report via Twitter and other news outlets, thousands of festival-goers were forced to take shelter in a nearby museum to avoid injury. At around 8pm, Ottawa Bluesfest released an official statement on Twitter that said, “There are no serious injuries on site.” Thank God. Also, the Ottawa fire department Tweeted shortly after that there was nobody trapped underneath the collapsed stage. UPDATE: It appears that three people have been hospitalized, one of them in “critical, life-thretening condition” according to an Ottawa news outlet. UPDATE: Thankfully the injured person is no longer in critical condition. The fact that more people were not harmed may largely be due to the fact that the stage collapsed backwards, instead of forwards into the crowd, or straight down.
The members of Cheap Trick managed to run off stage mere seconds before the stage collapsed. At around 9pm Ben Gibbard Tweeted: “We are all okay. Band, crew, and drivers.” So Death Cab fans rest assured, your boys are safe and sound. Click here to read a report by a local Ottawa newspaper that was on the scene. I’ll be sure to bring you more updates as they come in, but for now check out this very scary video of the stage collapsing. Watching this makes you realize that it truly was a miracle that nobody was harmed.
UPDATE: Ben just Tweeted: “We will return to Ottawa and play a proper show as soon as our schedule permits.” No further news on a show to make up for their cancelled Ottawa set.
UPDATE: It has been reported that those hospitalized were volunteers at the festival.
…i am SO DESPERATELY TRYING to find out if they are going to play somewhere else tonight or…play tomorrow…
i only stayed today to see them
Oh man i’d be so disappointed too. Thank god you weren’t hurt though. Were you watching when it collapsed? That youtube video was pretty scary.
no thankfully i decided not to go to the rest of the festival today because it was so hot outside that it wasn’t enjoyable.
definitely some luck on my part there for sure. i agree that it is terrifying to see the footage of the stage. the storm was freaky enough in itself.
still on the hunt though…i feel kinda bad for wanting them to play still but…i do…:(
yeah i understand…i’d probably be thinking the same thing.
There you go. Looks like you’ll get another show as soon as their “schedules permit”. Whenever that is.
It was seriously scary, I was right beside the stage and everyone was panicking. Cheap trick literally JUST made it off the stage and people were trying to rip down equipment as fast as possible
oh my god i can only imagine. thank god you’re ok though. people are more important than equipment.
[…] here’s something that’s on a much lighter note than most of the recent news i’ve posted. Earlier today Ben sat down and gave an interview with the folks over at The […]
[…] now via their official website, Death Cab have finally issued a formal statement regarding the accident at yesterday’s Ottawa Blues Festival. Although they were Tweeting up a storm all night with […]
[…] the scary incident at the Ottawa Bluesfest a couple weeks ago put a halt to the start of Death Cab’s North […]
[…] but actually very interesting. Ben gives us more insight into what happened last week when the stage collapsed at the Ottawa Bluesfest, he […]