Sugarland testimony released

Jennifer Nettles, one half of the country music duo Sugarland, has said she was never asked to delay the band's show at the Indiana State Fair because of an approaching storm. She would have complied if asked, Nettles said, according to testimony given during a taped deposition saying ""We're invited to come into a place and play. It's not our place," Nettles said. "I don't feel it's my responsibility, or my management's responsibility, to evacuate the fans in the case of danger. Do I care about their safety? Absolutely."

Seven people died and more than 40 were injured last year when a storm caused a stage at the state fair to collapse, shortly before Sugarland was to perform. Metal scaffolding supporting the stage lights fell onto a crowd of fans and workers as a storm swept through the fairgrounds on August 13th, 2011 one of three serous incidents involving inclement weather at outdoor events in North America that year, mirrored by the Pukklepop tragedy in Belgium.

Sugarland named in new lawsuit

Country duo Sugarland have been named as defendants in a lawsuit in the US relating to the stage collapse tragedy that occurred at the Indiana State Fair back in August when freak 60mph gusts of wind hit the State Fair's site just before the country act were due to perform in the event's main arena, bringing stage rigging crashing to the ground on top of waiting audience members. In total, seven people died and over 40 were injured. Claims had already been filed against the State of Indiana, whose liability under State law is limited to $5 million in total and against various other parties linked to the fair and the Sugarland performance.

5 die in Indiana freak storm

Five people have died after stage rigging at the Indiana State Fair in Indianapolis collapsed after being hit by 70mph freak gusts of wind just before country stars Sugarland were due to take to the stage. An announcement warned concert-goers that a storm was approaching BUT and critically it seems also said that it was hoped Sugarland's concert could go ahead: Seconds later strong winds blew up in the space of seconds and a large stage rig collapsed onto the waiting crowd. According to local media reports, four people died immediately, while one more died later in hospital. Over 40 others were being treated for injuries incurred during the stage collapse. . One member of the audience managed to film the incident State Governor Mitch Daniels told reporters later that many precautions had been taken ahead of the event to cope with stormy weather, but that the stage collapse had been caused by a freak gust of wind - between 60 and 70 mph - that could not have been foreseen. It appears that Sugarland had delayed the start of their set to see how bad the weather was, potentially saving the band’s own and many other lives.

There has been some debate in the US about how much warning organisers of the Fair really had. A spokesman for the Fair said that the metrological information they were relying on suggested there was at least half an hour more time before the storm would arrive at their site. He told a US radio station: "The information we had, with our meteorologist on site with constant contact with the National Weather Service, was that we had about 30 more minutes before any kind of rain or storm blew in". But some meteorologists claimed there were very real severe weather warnings that State Fair organisers ignored. Mike Smith from AccuWeather told CBS News that the storm at the Fair site "was very predictable", adding: "We put out a warning for 60 mile an hour winds a full half hour before the stage collapse occurred".