Breaking News: 1 Dead, 60 Trapped at Big Valley Jamboree ... Main Stage Collapses

[alltherage]

Originally Posted by oilboy2

good read in todays edmonton sun on the stupidity of people wanting the event to continue:

http://www.edmontonsun.com/news/albe...46741-sun.html

What nerve that cold bitch has. Who won the 50/50? Get the hell out of here.

[Dion]

Originally Posted by oilboy2

good read in todays edmonton sun on the stupidity of people wanting the event to continue:

http://www.edmontonsun.com/news/albe...46741-sun.html

When are they having the 50/50? Somebody should have slapped that woman silly to knock some sense into her. Someone died and many others were hurt. I can't believe how cold and self centered some people are

[CaptainCrunch]

There was a article in the sun yesterday about people being pissed off that the last day was cancelled. They had the whole well we paid for the whole thing the show must go on concept.

My first thought and I'm still sorry for it was that the wrong people got hurt and killed in that storm.

[mykalberta]

The money should be refunded but likely wont.

The whole point of the Festival is the last day. They rope you in like most festivals in getting a 3 day pass but everything is on the last day.

I honestly would be surprised if BVJ happened again. Hopefully whoever runs it has good liability insurance.

[Pokerface]

For those of you questioning how quickly it all went down, I'll explain:

My friends and I left the concert bowl during Billy Curringtons performance to eat dinner at like 5:45, at that time the weather was still nice but clouds were obviously rolling in, no biggie it happens a lot. By the time we made it to our campsite (no more that 7-8 mintues) I was commenting to my fiance's step-dad (a Farmer) that the clouds might blow past us. He was skeptical I turned to grab my burger and I heard him yell "you guys have less than 2 mintues to grab everything that'll blow away, I looked over and there was a bunch of fast moving dust passing overtop of that campers and by this time the stage was down. I saw a wind sock from our neighbor blow away and then BAM! Our awning was ripped off the camper like a piece of tissue paper, tarps were flying past us whipping me in the back, my friends tent blew away and got stuck on a van, other peoples tarp and awnings were blowing past us from other peoples trailers, Port o potties were blown literally across the road. The rain didn't even start until at least 10 minutes after that. I'm no weather expert but that wind was on us way before anyone even thought of it.

In the concert bowl Billy Currington simply said "we gotta go" and in moments it turned into that video.

There was no indication the winds would be so bad, the only warning we had for the wind was the dust it kicked up. I believe them when they say they didn't have a lot of time to react or warn people because it happened so quickly.

[Barnes]

Crazy. There was a pretty bad dust storm at Wapred tour one year and something like this could have potentially happened. The show went on. I wonder if this will make concert planners have local people familiar with the weather attend to give their $.02 from now on.

P.S.

Awning

[Pokerface]

For the record I'm bummed I didn't get to see Gary Allen or Tim McGraw for whom I was very excited to see, and it was a lot of money to go, but because of what happened I didn't expect "the show to go on" nor was that a priority.

[Ford Prefect]

I don't know ... I've experienced winds like that a couple times. There really is no warning. Maybe 5 minutes max, probably less. To eliminate this from occurring, concert and public event planners would pretty much have to shut down events every time the clouds gathered and the wind picked up a little, and that's just not realistic. Plough winds and such really do strike pretty much out of nowhere and with virtually no warning.

[Berger_4_]

I think that they'll have a tougher time getting it to go next year, but it'll happen again. It's just too big of a money maker for the city for them to let it go...the population practically doubles for a week.

I think the same thing as you myk...the money should be refunded, but it more than likely won't.

It's just too bad that the CRE bought out Panhandle and then this happens the first year they own it...I'm pretty damn sure they've got a huge insurance policy though...only problem will be getting support behind it next year.

[HOZ]

Originally Posted by Dion

When are they having the 50/50? Somebody should have slapped that woman silly to knock some sense into her. Someone died and many others were hurt. I can't believe how cold and self centered some people are

I think your are repeating yourself

[Finny61]

I hope this doesn't start a trend that if there is so much as a little gust of wind that an event will be postponed or cancelled. It was a freak weather incident, I don't see where the negligence is if the storm came in fast and its strength couldn't be determined. So any schmucks wanting to cash in on a suit should stuff it.

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by Berger_4_

I think that they'll have a tougher time getting it to go next year, but it'll happen again. It's just too big of a money maker for the city for them to let it go...the population practically doubles for a week.

I think they will have no problems at all getting it to go next year, and moreover, the community and the country music industry will rally around it. Hell, Kevin Costner has already come out and said he wants to return to "help with the healing".

I'm betting next years event will be the biggest one yet.

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by Dion

When are they having the 50/50? Somebody should have slapped that woman silly to knock some sense into her. Someone died and many others were hurt. I can't believe how cold and self centered some people are

Comically, one of the stories on the CP wire on Sunday morning was about organizers trying to figure out who won the 50/50 from Saturday's draw. And that was before anyone even thought to care about it.

[Berger_4_]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

I think they will have no problems at all getting it to go next year, and moreover, the community and the country music industry will rally around it. Hell, Kevin Costner has already come out and said he wants to return to "help with the healing".

I'm betting next years event will be the biggest one yet.

I certainly hope so...I'd hate to see it leave. I just think that it might meet a little bit of resistance since they were seriously contemplating moving it back to Big Valley for good, and then this happened. But yeah, I hope I'm completely out to lunch and it comes back bigger and better than ever (Garth Brooks next year anyone???)

[Matata]

Originally Posted by Barnes

Crazy. There was a pretty bad dust storm at Wapred tour one year and something like this could have potentially happened. The show went on. I wonder if this will make concert planners have local people familiar with the weather attend to give their $.02 from now on.

P.S.

Awning

Was that the year where the last 3-4 acts did 10-15 minute sets so they could get off-stage before the hail storm of the apocalypse arrived?

[Barnes]

There was no hail. Just dust and crazy winds and everyone got sand blasted. It was the first year Rancid played. Like '03 ish?

[KevanGuy]

For anyone interested what happened was a gust front. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outflow_boundary

[Dion]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

Comically, one of the stories on the CP wire on Sunday morning was about organizers trying to figure out who won the 50/50 from Saturday's draw. And that was before anyone even thought to care about it.

That's insane. If they had any sense of decency they should give that amount to the dead womans family to help with the funeral costs.

[krazycanuck]

Originally Posted by Dion

That's insane. If they had any sense of decency they should give that amount to the dead womans family to help with the funeral costs.

it's not quite that easy, they still are subject to AGLC laws, much like a lottery. They still needed to make the draw and award the prize.

[Sly]

It's so boring up here that I kind of wish I were trapped too.. LOL.