Three people were killed at Belgium’s Pukkelpop Festival when a storm caused the Chateau stage to collapse. Smith Westerns were onstage when the storm hit, resulting in the band being forced to flee off stage.
Frontman Cullen Omori issued the following statement soon after:
“We had just finished the first song of our set at Pukkelpop when the stage/tent started shaking and simply thought it was a storm passing through. I made a comment about Cheap Trick and we were about to play the next one when our tour manager yelled at me to run off the stage. Right then the tress collapsed 1 foot in front of Max [Kakacek, guitarist]. At this point we thought only the stage broke, not the tent. Amid the chaos it was hard to tell exactly what had happened, but after the rescue teams started coming in it became clear that there were severe injuries and we are now being told there are reports of multiple deaths. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families who lost loved ones in today’s tragedy.”
The tragedy follows on from the devastation seen at Indiana State Fair, and stage collapses at Cheap Trick and Flaming Lips concerts in the past month.
