Indiana State Fair Essay

435 Words1 Page

The Indiana State Fair was in full swing on August 13, 2011. The big event for the night was a Sugarland concert. The concert was scheduled to start at 8:45 P.M. At approximately 8:15 P.M. a severe storm was approaching the concert area with an approximate arrival time of 9:15 P.M. State Fair authorities were told about the approaching storm at that time. When the authorities were told about the storm, they went and spoke to the band’s manager at 8:20 P.M. and asked them to delay the start of the concert. The manager told the authorities Sugarland was not able to delay the start of the concert. By 8:30 P.M. over 12,000 fans had already entered the concert area. With the storm still approaching, CPT Weaver of the Indiana State Police told the executive director of the fair they need to either delay the show or cancel …show more content…

The warning told the storm was capable of producing winds up to 60 MPH. Even though the warning was issued the information about it was never given to the concert officials or state fair authorities. At 8:40 P.M. the executive director of the state fair gave the go ahead for the concert to begin as scheduled. At 8:45 CPT Weaver tells the executive director the concert area needs to be evacuated due to the approaching storm. At 8:46 the stage collapses due to the winds that were excess of 60-70 MPH from the storm. The incident caused 58 people to get hurt and 7 to be killed. Mid America Sound was the company that erected the stage for the concert. They told fair officials, the stage could withstand winds of 40 MPH. The company spokesperson said they had erected stages for the fair over several years and told the State Fair Commision not to use the stages if the winds were over 25 MPH. The stage at the fair was not even inspected prior to the concert. The State of Indiana does not require an inspection of temporary structures such as scaffolding or entertainment

More about Indiana State Fair Essay

Open Document