Easterfest evacuation and tent collapse

High drama at Easterfest 2011 as the rain came down and the floods came up.

(These photos actually taken after the power went off)

Soon after the rain started, some water began to drip down this 'king pole' (One of 4 that hold up our tent).  So I got a ladder and with assistance, quite some effort was expended in putting a cover consisting of cardboard and plastic over the moving light with the intention of continuing to use the light.  We then taped up a join in an extension lead and looked at the light on the second king pole.  Gave up on constructing an elaborate cover for it and just threw the plastic cover over it.  While we were busy doing that, someone came and told me that there was a creek flowing in back stage.

A quick reconnoiter back stage and indeed the creek was observed and reclassified as a river.

I figured that as the "Venue Manager" that we should shut down.  By this time pretty much everyone else on the crew was keen on a shut down so I hopped up on stage and tapped the talent on the shoulder, took the mic and asked the audience to leave while the lights were still on.  The guys back stage were very keen to cut the power but I wanted the audience out before the lights went off so as to reduce the likelihood of panic.
Early on when we though that the show would just go on, we lifted the power leads onto a row of chairs.  The video gear was on two tables sitting on plywood with the plywood sticking out toward the camera where we would sit.  Problem was the water was getting uner the ply and sort of tipping the table.  So we pulled most of the gear off and then when the tables were lighter, pulled the ply out from under the legs.  Derek's box of switches stayed on the table because we could not untangle the leads. Luckilly it is heavy and the table did not tip over.


 Tripod on riser.
The riser is made of MDF and now weighs in at about half a ton.

Back Stage

There was a huge effort to get road cases and equipment, especially musical equipment off the ground and onto the stage.

Audio Power Amplifiers.
So close.

The boys in uniform arrived with their holier than thou attitude and ordered me out of my tent.  Some time earlier, a colleague of mine had put their phone on charge in my car which was parked against the stricken tent.  I explained to the officer in question that the down side of leaving it like this was that should they need to move the car to drop the tent then having a flat battery would not help the situation.  However he seemed incapable of any logical thought and persisted with insisting that I move out and tried to tell me of the immenent danger of my tent collapsing.  The fact that both tents had been stable for several hours somehow escaped him and later also his boss.  They were more interested in standing around in their glow in the dark suits and presumably congratualating themselves on their power trip.  I suspect that they were somewhat on edge as a result of the deaths in the recent flash floods.


The next day it looked like this.










So between now and next year we shoudl think about what we should do better.
Initial thoughts include the following
1. Do nothing different.- No one died.  No serious gear damage was sustained.
2. Pick a high tide level and ensure all electrical gear is above this level.  The difficulty here is choosing an appropriate level and also deciding what to use to put things on.  Wooden pallets are a nice cheap option but they float.  The other thing is that all this is to no avail, it the mains power is under water outside our tent and gets switched off.
3. Pick a high tide level and build a floor to this height for all gear.