A Snoop Dogg and Wiz Khalifa concert ended abruptly Friday night when a railing separating the energized audience from the stage collapsed, sending dozens of people to the concrete walkway below.
The accident happened at the BB&T Pavilion in Camden, New Jersey, after Snoop and Wiz yelled for the crowd to “stand up.” Unable to withstand the pressure from the excited crowd, the railing buckled and the support poles failed.
A county spokesman told NBC10 Philadelphia that most of the injuries were broken bones, bumps and bruises. One person was critically injured and taken to Cooper Trauma Center.
Concertgoers captured the tragedy on video from several angles and posted on social media. In one such video, a call for calm can be heard over the P.A. system and an assurance that the concert would continue shortly. It did not.
Concert organizers cancelled the rest of the show, cleared the arena and a triage area was set up near the parking lot.
Collapsing stages, faulty railings, fires and even stampeding crowds have injured and killed countless music fans through the years.
In 2011, five people were killed at the Indiana State Fair when a windstorm lifted and collapsed a performance stage, crushing front-row fans who were awaiting a performance by the country act Sugarland.