Vancouver Olympic organizers are investigating a Live Nation-produced rock concert at the 2010 Winter Games where a barricade collapse left 19 people injured.
The incident is the latest in an accident-prone Winter Olympics caused in part by warm and wet weather on local Vancouver mountains and missteps by Games organizers.
The stage barrier came down at the LiveCity Yaletown venue soon after Canadian rock band Alexisonfire came on stage and frenzied fans surged forward, according to statement from the city of Vancouver.
City officials said 10 concertgoers were treated for minor injuries on the scene, and another nine were sent to hospital for further treatment of their injuries, none of which were life-threatening.
Tuesday night’s (Feb. 16) concert, billed as a celebration of the 2010 Vancouver Games at David Lam Park on the city’s waterfront, was canceled after the barrier incident.
The venue is near to General Motors Place, where fans Tuesday night poured onto Vancouver streets to cheer the Canadian men’s hockey team’s 8-0 triumph over Norway.
And Canadians were already in a party mood after Vancouver local Maelle Ricker won gold in the snowboard cross earlier in the day.
Safety improvements were made to the Live City Yaletown venue following the incident.
Continuing weather woes at the Winter Games caused organizers to cite safety issues after they decided to cancel and issue refunds for around 20,000 spectator tickets for the Cypress Mountain venue.
That move will greatly reduce the amount of spectators worldwide TV audiences will see for ski and snowboard events unfolding at the rain- and fog-plagued Cypress venue.
Mishaps on the ground have not dampened the Canadian TV audience for the Winter Games, which continues to secure ratings that only huge communal TV events like the Oscars or the Super Bowl garner.
The Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium, which has the exclusive Canadian rights to the Games, said 7.1 million viewers tuned in to see Canadian mogul competition winner Alexandre Bilodeau receive his gold medal on Monday night.
And the consortium’s CTVOlympics.ca and RDSolympiques.ca video stream sites secured 48.5 million page views by the fourth day of the Vancouver Games, surpassing the previous record of 45 million page views during the entire 2008 Beijing Summer Games.
