Audio structure falls on concertgoers at ‘Boots in the Park’ on Saturday
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – A heavy speaker tower came crashing down on a concert crowd this weekend in the middle of an Albuquerque city park. Several people were injured, and the city is clear to say they’re not responsible.
“Everything seemed fine, it was a nice day,” said Maria Anchondo, concertgoer.
A big crowd of concertgoers packed Balloon Fiesta Park for the “Boots in the Park” country music show Saturday night. What started as a calm evening changed within minutes, putting the crowd at risk.12 to 20-mile-per-hour winds ramped up rattling sound equipment and tents inside the park.
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“That’s when we could see like the speakers started to move and you know, it didn’t seem like that big of a deal because usually, we are used to the high winds so we weren’t expecting anything crazy to happen,” said Anchondo.
Around 7:40 p.m., a 50-mile-per-hour wind gust tore through the park, ripping tent tops, damaging two video walls on the side of the stage, and bringing down more heavy equipment that was surrounded by people.
“One of the speaker columns that they had tilted over right into the crowd, I want to say about ten feet in front of us,” said Anchondo.
“It was pretty scary you know like, I immediately looked around to see if some of the other ones are going to fall,” Anchondo said.
Two people were taken to the hospital with serious injuries according to an incident report by the private company who put on the concert.
A female hit by the collapsed audio structure had an injury on her leg/ankle and was transported by ambulance to Presbyterian. A male was also struck by the same structure and was taken to the University of New Mexico by ambulance with injuries to his face, head, and neck.
They had to pause the show for nearly two hours.
In a statement, the city said:
Organizers of events at Balloon Fiesta Park are responsible for event security and public safety measures. The City will conduct an after-action evaluation of the entire event.
City of Albuquerque
KRQE News 13 is still waiting to hear back from the company that put on the event.
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