Blue Ridge Rock Festival (Alton, VA)- Lack of emergency planning

[WxSynopsisDavid]

Since this is weather related, I wanted to make this post and get everyone’s opinion here. How do you logically have a 4 day rock festival, with 200,00+ people attending and have zero plans in place?

 

I get there are risks and you get what you paid for. The other night, 75mph winds and hail struck the venue. They of course waited last minute to do anything about it and people were stuck. People were in lines, waiting for shuttle buses, 3+ hour wait because they oversold the event and did not have enough buses running.

People showed up yesterday, and were turned around at the gate…ticket purchasers…because they oversold the event. Now today, a severe thunderstorm with lightning impacted the venue. Last minute decisions were made and people were instructed to shelter in the woods underneath trees. How do you not have logistics and emergency planning in place?

[WxSynopsisDavid]

Mind you, the person commenting is a good friend of mine. A local chase partner, and he works in OSHA and is trained in emergency management. The fact he’s questioning their protocols and practices should say something.

[Eskimo Joe]

Special event contingency planning is the bane for local emergency management. Concert organizers refuse to engage and go off into left field in the name of profit. That's not to say that we should bubble wrap everything and cancel at the drop of a shower, but I agree that this appears to be a complete cluster.

[MDScienceTeacher]

32 minutes ago, Eskimo Joe said:

Special event contingency planning is the bane for local emergency management. Concert organizers refuse to engage and go off into left field in the name of profit. That's not to say that we should bubble wrap everything and cancel at the drop of a shower, but I agree that this appears to be a complete cluster.

Sometimes you need to live a little and let it rip!

In 2013 I went to see Fun. at Merriweather.  There was stalled out severe storm that dumped for an hour straight.  Lightening everywhere.  They kept playing.  I was in the field the whole time.

That was the most memorable concert experience of my life...

[WVclimo]

9 hours ago, MDScienceTeacher said:

Sometimes you need to live a little and let it rip!

In 2013 I went to see Fun. at Merriweather.  There was stalled out severe storm that dumped for an hour straight.  Lightening everywhere.  They kept playing.  I was in the field the whole time.

That was the most memorable concert experience of my life...

I attended the infamous Grateful Dead concert at Merriweather in 1983 which became known as “Terror Weather.”  Also a stalled storm that dumped 3-4” of rain during the show.  Lightning strikes all around.  The power went out a couple of times as the band  kept playing.  People were sliding down the lawn on cardboard from beer cases.

The footbridge we crossed to enter was a foot underwater when we tried to leave.  Which meant wading through waist-deep water.  Then we realized there was no getting out of the lots until the water receded.

[mattie g]

These anecdotes sound like an absolute blast, but all it took was one misplaced lightning strike and you’ve got multiple dead and injured.

It sounds a lot like people yearning for the old days and saying that we don’t need seat belts or bike helmets or other general modern safety measures because “we all survived being kids.”

[WxSynopsisDavid]

On 9/9/2023 at 9:30 PM, Eskimo Joe said:

Special event contingency planning is the bane for local emergency management. Concert organizers refuse to engage and go off into left field in the name of profit. That's not to say that we should bubble wrap everything and cancel at the drop of a shower, but I agree that this appears to be a complete cluster.

Another tidbit of information came out. Shortly after they canceled, they were having discussions with local emergency management and put the blame on the local NWS offices, local forecasters in the region, and local news weather outlets for not properly forecasting the storms in advance. For anyone living in the midatlantic region (such as myself), we knew days in advance that storms were expected. To blame professionals who forecast for their lack of planning is astounding. 

My coworker where I work does concert prepping on the side. The company he works for was contacted Friday night about having their guys work the stage Saturday and Sunday. When they asked why they were needed, the reasoning was stated that since the current stage crews quit after Thursday's hail storm they were in need of a stage crew. He did some more research, contacted the crew that quit. They stated that they quit because they had no showers and camping established for the stage crews and they were not feeding them. When the hail storm hit, the stage crew knew in advance what was coming but BRRF continued on and the admin failed to address the need at hand.

They waited minutes before the hail to tell people that along with rain and winds, hail was moving into the area. The warning was already issued and in place far in advance. Now concerning the stage crew not being fed, Slipknot's vocalist Corey Taylor ended up paying to feed them and was going to pay for their room and board. They quit soon after, only learning how BRRF was blaming the stage crew for inconsistencies regarding  Thursday's hail and high wind situation.