Rock Monsters Too Heavy For Stage

A Monsters Of Rock concert in Russia featuring The Scorpions, Kingdom Come, The Rasmus and Alice Cooper was canceled because the stage collapsed under the weight of their equipment.

The June 20 show in Novosibirsk, Siberia, Russia’s third-largest city, was pulled early that morning when site technicians discovered it fell down the previous night.

“The bulky musical and lighting equipment that all the participants have brought along must have been too heavy, and the metallic support beams just gave way,” one worker reportedly told Interfax news agency.

Ed Ratnikov of Talent Concert International, which is promoting the Monsters Of Rock package, said it’s not the first time it’s happened in Russia, which is a developing market where “some local equipment isn’t certified.”

“We chose Orion, the best Siberian production company, to provide the stage, scaffolding, sound and lights. We hired them a year ago for The Scorpions show in Siberia and were delighted with their services.

“But this time it seems we have a massive lighting plot for four acts and Orion didn’t really know the weight limits. Nineteen hours before the show, the staging collapsed – thankfully nobody was hurt,” Ratnikov explained.

The tour continued – despite broken band equipment – to Krasnoyarsk, Murmansk, Volgograd and Moscow June 22-28.

Russian news agencies are estimating the canceled show will have cost the organisers about $650,000. This includes the cost of flights and accommodation for the musicians as well as the penalty for the canceled concert. The cost of the broken musical and light equipment will be calculated separately.

They’ve already begun refunding the estimated 20,000 people who paid between $30 and $260 for a ticket.