Indiana State Fair Reopens With Memorial Service
Weeked stage collapse leaves five dead, dozens injured.
| Posted Monday, Aug. 15, 2011, at 9:39 AM
UPDATE: The Indiana State Fair reopened Monday with a public memorial service for the five people who were killed over the weekend when a concert stage collapsed, CNN reports.
Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, who attended the memorial, said that fair officials are currently at work on the repairs needed to get the fair back up and running at full speed.
"Our first instinct in Indiana is not to go rushing around, looking for scapegoats. It's to take care of business, take care of those who've been hurt and then, of course ... study to see if something could have done better and learn any necessary lessons," he said.
UPDATE Sunday 12:10 p.m. The New York Times is now reporting that at least five are dead in the wake of the accident. The number of injured, now at around 40, may rise, according to state police, as some may have taken themselves to area hospitals on their own. The rigging apparently fell onto the VIP area of the concert audience, closest to the stage; many who were hurt sustained head and neck injuries and lascerations.
Original Post Saturday: Festivities at the Indiana State Fair took a tragic turn on Saturday, when high storm winds knocked over a giant piece of stage rigging onto the crowd watching a concert at the busy event.
The malfunction took place around 9 p.m. at Indianapolis’s fairgrounds just before popular country band Sugarland was set to take the stage, according to The New York Times.
More than three dozen adults and children were taken to nearby hospitals with a range of injuries, and four were reported dead by local authorities. A spokesman for Indiana University Health, which operates Riley Hospital for Children and Methodist Hospital of Indianapolis, told the Times:
“It’s a pretty serious situation, especially when you have to call in most of your emergency crews. It’s under control back here but everybody is working to get us through this.”
The Associated Press reports that some fans had already begun to seek shelter from increasingly powerful winds and storm conditions when the stage rigging collapsed onto them. Event producers hadn’t yet called for an evacuation.
Some blurry video of the incident has already made it online:
