Safety is now cool

We were shellacked relentlessly in previous years whenever CX wrote of stage safety and associated dark arts. So the risky passing of a 12 page forensic report on the Indiana disaster of August 2011 in the May CX mag was eagerly monitored by the Facebook and CX Mail Monitor.

Amazingly we received only direct praise in reply, with almost no flack (we know of) at devoting so many pages of the industry magazine to the (we think) important task of understanding the factors that led up to the ridiculous collapse of a badly assembled stage. A situation that could have occurred here. So we don’t have tornadoes in Australia? We do, but we don’t call them that – and they didn’t have a Tornado or anything like it at Indiana. A 50 knot wind is common here, as it was there – and it felled the feeble roof on top of seven people who are no longer with us; and over 40 who wish they were not there, that day.

In the interests of balance, please feel free to read the feature here: http://www.cx-mag.com/dolphin.html

Having progressed to this new era of Safety Awareness, we now have to deal with the issue of Show Cancellations.

Congratulations to Radio JJJ for calling off the event in Dalby Qld at the weekend before Temper Trap went on, when heavy rain trashed the stage. Link here.

But more congrats to the brave souls in Buffalo USA who called off a set by Eric Church on Saturday just gone – and reaped the angst factor of the crowd. Far out – see the rain pissing down in the picture, story here. The big picture is that we have concert tickets with ‘Rain Or Shine’ printed on them.

Now we need to EDUCATE our audiences, to expect the unexpected, and make the unknown a known.

Yes kids, if WE the event PROFESSIONALS make an incredibly difficult decision to call OFF the show, like JJJ and Buffalo, then that’s it. Whacko-the-chook. Go home.

Be alive.

And most crucially, if WE followed a PLAN, and if the weather then stops being BAD, we are not to blame.