Stage Collapses Before Toronto Radiohead Concert

Tara Walton/Toronto Star, via Associated PressA collapsed stage at the site for a Radiohead concert in Toronto on Saturday.

A massive rooflike structure collapsed onto a temporary stage for a Radiohead concert in Toronto on Saturday afternoon, hours before the band was supposed to go on, killing a stagehand and injuring at least three other workers, CNN and the CBC reported.

Radiohead, a British alternative rock band, canceled the concert. No band members were on stage at the time of the collapse, but members of concert crew were working in the area. A 30-year-old stagehand was found dead at the scene, while a second worker, 45, suffered a head injury and was taken to Sunnybrook Hospital, said Ian McClelland, the deputy commander of Toronto Emergency Medical Services.

The park was not open, but a crowd of people was waiting outside for the show when the collapse occurred. The gates had been scheduled to open at 5 p.m.

The accident victims were not immediately identified. They were setting up for the concert when a “scaffolding-type structure” 40 to 60 feet above the main stage collapsed, according to Capt. Mike Strapko of the Toronto fire department. A video filmed from a helicopter showed that a metal frame that served as a roof, still covered with a blue tarp, had crumpled the space where musicians were to appear.

The weather was fair, with no significant winds, the authorities in Toronto said.

Last year, a spate of collapses at outdoor concerts led to calls for more regulation of temporary stages, roofs and lighting rigs. Most of the accidents involved high winds. The worst occurred on Aug. 13, when a gust of wind caused a roof over the main stage to collapse at the Indiana State Fair, killing seven people who were waiting for the country band Sugarland to perform.

On July 17, the roof of the main stage at the Ottawa Bluesfest came crashing down in a storm while Cheap Trick were performing. It was prevented from crushing the musicians and crew by a truck that bore the brunt of the collapse.  On Aug. 6, high winds toppled a lighting rig at an outdoor concert by the Flaming Lips in Tulsa, Okla.

Later that month, on Aug. 18, a fierce storm tore through the Pukkelpop music festival near Hasselt, Belgium, causing three tents above stages to collapse, and killing five people.

A statement on Radiohead’s Web site said that tickets to the sold-out event would be refunded.

This post has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: June 16, 2012

An earlier version of this post misstated the hour at which the gates were scheduled to open for the Radiohead concert. It was 5 p.m., not 4 p.m.