Belgium's Pukkelpop festival on hold at the moment - short storm during first day, 1 of the stages collapsed, 1 dead, 7 seriously injured

http://deredactie.be/cm/vrtnieuws/cultuur%2Ben%2Bmedia/Festivals2011/110818_Pukkelpop_donderdag

(report is in dutch - Foo Fighters, 30 Seconds To Mars, were due to play on the main stage later tonight, but the whole festival's been stopped for now - press conference from the organisation any minute now / collapsed stage = Chateau. Smith Westerns were playing when it happened -> schedule http://www.pukkelpop.be/nl/line-up/donderdag/ )

2 dead

40 injured

fucking hell. Went to this a few years back. There's a video on youtube from just when the stage goes i guess
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qj9VDZlSrmU

i read 4 dead :(

(1 of the dead was on the festival site, 1 on the camping)

live reporting from the press conference @ the radio, they just said 2 dead

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-14582448

Here's footage of the storm. Makes you wonder why they went ahead
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67ZqrigZdv8&feature=player_embedded

Organisers not sure how to continue now - whether to just restart the concerts, ask bands who still feels like playing

updated: 3 dead

it was a very very short storm - 15 minutes earlier the sun was still shining

pitchfork says four dead

except the ap story they link to says "at least one"

I'm following live @ Studio Brussel, they're on the site, they were reporting live like they do at all big summer festivals here.

The mayor of Hasselt just said 2 dead, someone else (head of safety) just said 3.

in short, it's a bit chaotic at the moment. Camping site is a mess, people leaving, still no decision about what's happening later tonight

The Boiler room (dance tent) has also partially collapsed, one report said

lord

This is really sad, especially considering all the other stage collapses this summer. Apparently Indiana isn't big enough for its own thread, but there was a collapse just before a Sugarland concert at the Indiana State Fair last week that killed 5. Plus that Cheap Trick one where, thankfully, no one was seriously injured.

This is so sad. :(

Chateau tent went down in less than a minute during Smith Westerns' show, one article says.

Half of Belgium has been hit by this weird weather, by the way - water trouble in large parts of the country, where more extremely short but heavy storms have happened

60,000 people there, are now all trying to call home + all of their friends and families are trying to reach them = cell phone networks down

Tents and stages are probably built to withstand normal storms, not freak occurences like this one :-/

Officially confirmed: 3 dead at the moment

20 cm of rain in 10 minutes

This is horrible. Can't imagine what it would be like to be stranded amid all the chaos there now.

The footage of the Indiana State Fair stage collapse is horrific, I actually had a nightmare about it.

I did too! I've never been so horrified about something I'd seen on the internet, but that haunted me for a couple days.

Friend's daughter is okay - she and one of her friends hid in one of the portable toilets, not far from where someone died under a tree

http://twitter.com/#!/search?q=%23hasselthelpt (in Dutch)

= Hasselt helps, people from the big city nearby offering beds & places to stay for people who've lost their tents

Skin from Skunk Anansie who were playing on the main stage when it happened: http://www.facebook.com/OfficialSkunkAnansie/posts/10150347415592419

pics http://skylin.es/thing/pukkelpop

Last year it was Ou Est Le Swimming Pool's singer (suicide) and someone's sound technician who died, this year... Damn

The families of all the victims have been contacted - if you have someone there and you haven't heard from them: don't panic

more pics http://jangeloen.blogspot.com/2011/08/pukkelpop-2011.html

someone's sound technician

Michael Been, former leader of The Call, that is.

exactly - thank you & sorry for not remembering :-/

99% of the storms we get here don't do this:

http://i51.tinypic.com/214t6yp.jpg

That's some "tornado alley" looking stuff right there.

new press conference, just now

Site is being closed for the night, people are being asked to leave to the camping, several large venues nearby where beds/mattresses are available, or buses, train stations - tomorrow morning the organisation will see how many stages they'll open/how many bands want to play/contractual situations.

jesus, horrifying.....and wait, really, almost EIGHT INCHES OF RAIN in 10 minutes? that is fucking so insane.

from sunshine/storm/back to sunshine, it all happened in less than half an hour, apparently

The organisation thought about stopping completely, but too many people are there (3 days, 60,000 people each day), bands are en route, etc

One of the injured didn't make it - 4 dead (2 on the festival site, one on the camping site, one in hospital) and 35 seriously injured is the latest info.

Lots of people have gone home (some report that 3/4 of the tents on the camp site had water in them), but the new situation will only become clear after the festival reopens at 11am.

Those 35 seriously injured are said to be critically injured, even (all of them???) - hundreds of less injured.

Depressingly stupid reactions on news sites as usual from people who think the organisation could have evacuated the whole site (60,000 people) in 5 minutes, who think anyone would even be able to fully pay back all the tickets, etc etc. - I can't even begin to imagine what would have happened if this wasn't one of the best organised festivals anywhere (26th year)

5 dead, just confirmed

Completely cancelled after all.

It is just so horrifying watching the youtube clips. One in particular, the people not realizing the severity (of course), still laughing and then *boom* the tent goes down not too far from them. Nature is such a cruel beast.

The spontaneous help from people made me glad. People do come together in bad times and help eachother.

RIP and I hope the other severe cases pull through. What a horrible thing to happen.

My friend's daughter saw someone lose an arm :-(

3 people still critically injured & fighting for their lives in the hospital at the moment

Oh neen, Stan, dat is verschrikkelijk!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=az4WWP-ZWNw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9w3ZsAb5ikA

After that first rain/hail count (20cm in 10 minutes), there's now another estimate: 36 liters in 20 minutes

this is just horrible. the sky is completely black in that clip with skin playing and it wasn't even night time. i've never seen anything like that in europe.

was getting breathless and tearful just watching the clips tbh.

in that Skunk Anansie clip you can see the moment it changes from rain to hail (Skin is talking, 1:34)

I'm in complete shock and I wasn't even there (been there a lot the previous years though - this is my favourite festival)

How the fuck does it hail in Europe in August? That's just freakishly apocalyptic.

Not just hail, golf ball sized. People who didn't find shelter have bruises, bleeding skin on their arms and legs from the hail.

branch falls through the tent at the end of the video:

http://www.deredactie.be/cm/vrtnieuws/mediatheek/nieuws/cultuurenmedia/1.1090483

camp site - light tower at 1'58 , hail from 2'10

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIGiekIW418

(um, pretty loud screaming, warning)

holy shit

fucking hell, that video.

The moment the chateau tent collapses: 1'24

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okyx6HbpHmI

guy screams "eruit, eruit" = get out, get out

First investigation by the police = organisers weren't to blame. There's a 60 meter wide trail of destruction, kilometers long, that goes straight through the middle of the festival area - nobody can prepare for something like that.

At least half of the apple and pear crop in the north east of Belgium was destroyed yesterday.

The names of the deceased have been circulating on twitter. Two young people were a couple. Some claim a sixth has died. :-(

I was listening on Stubru radio station how horrible it was and what people were going through. Most didn't realize what happened and the severity until it was all over.

There's a 60 meter wide trail of destruction, kilometers long

If you hear Chokri explaining it, it's like it blazed through. Only one long trail, the rest was relatively ok. :-(

That sounds EXACTLY like a tornado imo.

we just had a very similar flash storm pass by here, only minus the hail

or 'straight line' winds/storm

R.I.P.

http://i53.tinypic.com/r9qvqc.jpg, 21, died when that light tower crashed on her tent where she was hiding from the rain (2 videos up)

http://i51.tinypic.com/25fnfav.jpg, a couple, 21 and 20, died when one of the supporting poles of the dance tent (that didn't collapse) came loose

http://i55.tinypic.com/2imbcr6.jpg, 35, died when he went back into the Chateau tent to retrieve his backpack - then it collapsed

and one 59 year old person (not in the press yet)

Stan, I just heard on Dutch radio that people's tents were looted during this tragedy by other festival go-ers. Is that true? Ugh...

This is horrible and horrifying.

I've noticed at any and every festival, there is so little in the way of practical shelter should anything weather related go down, let alone any other significant disaster. These festivals are are held in big, empty fields. Freak storm, bomb, whatever - the scenario invites disaster .... :(

xpost, yeah heard about looting too :-(

Corrected info: 4 dead. The 59 year old man died because of the same storm and arrived at the hospital at the same time as some of the pukkelpop victims, so he got counted as one.

5 dead again. One of the seriously injured, a 24 year old man who had brain trauma and was in a coma for almost a week, died last night.

Loads of support for the organisers, some bands who haven't played have repaid their fees, some people who still think 60,000 people should be evacuated to somewhere safe every time storms are announced (during late summer, that would be the end of the festival forever, we get summer storms all the time) just in case it turns into one of these freak events, some people want their ticket money back, some don't, etc - overall, though, most people hope the festival isn't finished forever. We'll see what the financial situation is in a couple of months, but the organiser has thanked everyone for their support and has said it helps him to try and fight for the continued existence of Pukkelpop.

June 22, 2011 Wednesday 3:23 PM BST

SINGER 'KILLED HIMSELF AT FESTIVAL'

SECTION: PA Regional Newswire for English Regions

LENGTH: 197 words

A singer from Northamptonshire who died during a music festival in Belgium took his own life, a coroner ruled.

Charles Haddon, 22, frontman of electro-pop trio Ou Est Le Swimming Pool, died at the Pukkelpop festival in August last year.

Haddon and his band, based in Camden, had performed at the three-day festival in Hasselt.

At an inquest into his death in Northampton, coroner Anne Pember recorded a verdict of suicide, an official confirmed.

It was originally thought Mr Haddon leapt to his death from a telecommunications mast behind the main stage, but the cause of death was found to be hanging.

It is believed the 22-year-old was upset after a girl was injured by another member of his group diving off the stage.

Ou Est Le Swimming Pool were due to start a UK headline tour in Cambridge in October last year.

The band had supported La Roux on tour the previous year, which Haddon described in a blog as being a personal highlight.

They also played at the Glastonbury and Bestival festivals in 2009, and were set to make a second appearance at Bestival, on the Isle of Wight, last year.

Around 300 mourners attended Mr Haddon's funeral in Yelvertoft, Northamptonshire, last September. end

It's sad about this guy and all, but was there ever any update on the condition of the girl who was injured in the stage-dive incident?