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Main >> News Listing >> August 2003 >> Article ID 3
 The show does not go on at A.C.'s Boardwalk Hall | Type: Internet Article |
| | Justin Timberlake, Christina Aguilera were to perform | Aug 10, 2003 | by Dan P. Lee
 The North American tour of pop music stars Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguilera might have ended Saturday afternoon when electronic and other equipment the tour's crew was raising for an evening show came crashing down inside Boardwalk Hall.
The estimated 30 people working below were able to move out of the way as the large steel rigging structure on which the equipment was being raised buckled violently and lurched downward before collapsing completely, authorities and members of the crew said shortly after the 12:45 p.m. incident.
Authorities said three unidentified people sustained minor injuries as they scrambled to avoid being struck. Two were taken to the nearby Atlantic City Medical Center, City Division, for treatment of cuts and bruises, authorities said.
The rigging structure had hung from a false ceiling, which apparently sustained some damage in the incident. The ceiling and the structure - called a "supergrid" - were added as part of the nearly 75-year-old historic hall's recent $90 million refurbishment.
Federal, state and local officials were immediately summoned to the scene to begin an investigation.
The cause of the crash remained uncertain Saturday night, as did how officials would remove the mangled supergrid, which remained partially suspended several feet above the ground amid substantial amounts of smashed equipment.
Boardwalk Hall officials quickly locked the building down after the incident and announced that Saturday's sold-out show was being postponed.
Several crewmembers speculated that the remainder of the tour also would have to be postponed or canceled due to the extent of damage to the multimillion-dollar equipment, which included stage set pieces, giant video screens, lighting and speakers.
Tour officials did not make a formal announcement about whether the tour's eight other scheduled shows would go on. Neither Aguilera nor Timberlake - who were not in the building at the time of the collapse - issued any kind of statement.
Fans arriving at the hall's box office were crushed to find notes affixed to the windows shortly after the collapse informing them that the show had been postponed. Some cried.
"I'm so sad," said Michelle Ackerman, 14, of Fairfax, Va., who had come to Atlantic City with her mother and friend specifically for the show. Her mother, also almost crying, appeared as upset as she.
Authorities and crewmembers said the collapse occurred as the equipment was being raised on the supergrid. They said the procedure involved lowering the supergrid first, connecting the equipment to it, raising the supergrid into position and then raising the equipment.
Dozens of the crewmembers gathered outside a side exit minutes after the collapse, some of them smoking down cigarettes, virtually all of them visibly upset. The mangled grid and equipment could be seen through the open doors.
A tour official emerged from the hall to call the crew into another part of the building for an emergency meeting. As the group walked back into the building, he urged everyone to refrain from talking to the news media.
Two workers who witnessed the incident agreed to be interviewed so long as their names were not published, however.
"It seemed like (the collapse) lasted an eternity but then again it seemed like it happened in a flash," said a 38-year-old electrician from Margate who had been standing beneath the grid as it began falling. "It was nerve-wracking. My heart's still beating."
A 33-year-old engineer from out of state who is part of the touring company said Saturday's events almost certainly would force the tour to end.
"Tour's over," he said. "Every bit of equipment is crushed. Tour's over."
He said the crew prepares individual plans for each venue well in advance and had begun setting up Boardwalk Hall early Saturday morning.
"This is a high-end cazillion-dollar business," he said. "This isn't fly-by-night."
The tour had been among the biggest, most expensive and most elaborately produced of the summer concert season. More than 20 trucks transported the sets and other equipment from venue to venue, a crewmember said. The tour had played in more than 30 cities and had a few more weeks remaining.
Boardwalk Hall, which hosted a Beatles concert in 1964, the 1964 Democratic National Convention and decades of Miss America pageants, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and has received similar recognition from the state of New Jersey.
The $90 million renovation project, which began in late 1998 and was completed in October 2001, included significant work to modernize the hall so that big concerts such as recent ones by Bruce Springsteen and Cher could be held there.
To that end, the supergrid was suspended from a false ceiling over the stage area to accommodate customized light-and-sound system. The structure replaced an old-fashioned system of attaching lights to motorized chains dropped from holes in the ceiling.
Bob McClintock, senior general manager for the Atlantic City Convention Center and Boardwalk Hall, said Saturday evening that more information about the incident should be available today. |
 Source: Press of Atlantic City | |
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