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Pinestock incident raises safety concerns
May 3rd, 2007 by John O'Sullivan
By John F. O’Sullivan
After chanting for an encore for a few minutes, Cake stepped back onstage. It was during the final minutes of Pinestock on Saturday. The crowd of 1300-2000 students went wild as the band launched into one of their best-known singles, but suddenly their focus was drawn elsewhere.
Someone had broken through the line of security in front of the stage and “began climbing on the stage right side to the top and began monkey-barring across the crossbeam,” according to concertgoer Tom Rude. The beam in question was 20-25 feet above the ground.
While his name is yet to be released, sources close to the person in question identified him as a student from St. Cloud State University.
As president of the Military Science Club, Cody Martin helped recruit members of the club to work security separating the stage from the spectators.
“The guy just jumped over, grabbed on, and climbed up,” said Martin, who was working on the opposite side of the stage. There wasn’t much room between the crowd barrier and the support beam the student climbed, according to Martin. “He was up before you knew it.”
(As the student climbed the stage right beam, another student attempted to ascend the stage left beam, but Martin caught that student before he could make it up.)
For unknown reasons, the student got a few feet over the stage, then turned back around and began to climb down. Several sources also claim the student suffered burns on his arm as a result of the stage lights that had been on for most of the concert.
“As soon as his belt came within reach [security] grabbed his belt and ripped him down,” John Bjorkland, eyewitness said.
Stearns County Sheriff’s officers detained him and issued a citation for disorderly conduct, said Lieutenant Jon Lentz. The citation carries a maximum fine of $1000 or 90 days in jail. Alcohol testing was not performed since the student was over 21 years of age. The student was then released on site to friends who claimed responsibility for him.
Aside from the short disruption, most considered the day a big success.
“By and large students were really quite responsible that day,” said Michael Connolly, Dean of Students. “I thought it was an outstanding day.”
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May 10th, 2007 at 6:28 pm
From the band’s blog…
“Towards the end of our set, a young man jumped the crowd control barricade and quickly scaled the main scaffolding support on stage right. He shot straight up it, as an experienced lighting person in a hurry would. He grabbed the top bar as if it were playground equipment, and propelled himself across the length of it with the dexterity of a white handed gibbons monkey.
As he swung back and forth at center stage, it appeared he was going to attempt a backflip 18 feet down into the waiting, but in reality, woefully unprepared crowd below. He had made many ambiguous hand gestures from up there, trying to communicate to friends in the pit instructions on how they should be prepared to catch him. When a swing from the bar at center stage seemed out of the question, he swung back hand over hand to the side in order to begin his descent from the stage frame. It was a relief to see that. He came so very close to making the step from the scaffolding ladder over to the top of the barricade and back into the crowd. Freedom! But alas, an ambitious and probably personally insulted police officer grabbed him hard by the ankle and pulled him down roughly to his feet.
When the musclebound officer aggressively pulled the leg of the fatigued climber, ironically, that is when he really could have hurt himself by uncontrollably hitting his head or face against the scaffolding or barricade. That would have been a shame after all the suspense of his weight hanging up there for so long. A group of overzealous law officers, not wanting to look like they were slacking on the job, and proving that they deserved a whole days pay for doing nothing, aggressively whisked the surrendering daredevil away. From all the clampdown, you might imagine that the security detail had visions of the Altamont Free Concert or Woodstock 1999 in their heads.
We don’t condone the climbing of scaffolding at our shows, but the way the officials dealt with it was kind of tough to see, especially after such a display of graceful strength and agility. To be fair, he surely could have hurt himself or someone else in the crowd if he fell or swung down in the wrong place. Later, we saw him taken away in a law enforcement vehicle. It is true that the band has nothing to do with these matters. We leave these issues to the good judgement of the local citizens and authorities, however since hostility against authority has always been an American tradition, this cathartic commentary feels appropriate.”