After fence breaks, LiveCity Yaletown reopens without major changes

The music is playing again at LiveCity Yaletown after February 16’s Alexisonfire show was shut down just a few seconds into the headliner’s first song.

On Tuesday night, a strong surge from the 7,000-plus strong crowd smashed through a steel barrier. Dozens were knocked over, an estimated 20 were injured and treated on site, and nine of those people were taken to hospital.

But less than 24 hours later, LiveCity Yaletown was open again and it was business as usual, lineups and all.

Vancouver city manager Penny Ballem told the Straight that the broken barrier was replaced but that no other changes were made to the free music venue erected for the 2010 Winter Olympics. Furthermore, the new fence does not differ in any major way from the one that crowds pushed through for Alexisonfire.

“The construct and the concept of the fence is the same,” Ballem said in a telephone interview. “They are virtually identical. This one was made by another manufacturer, as it happens. Not that we were looking for that; we were just looking for one that was available. It is very slightly different, in terms of how it is constructed. But it is the industry standard of fence.”

Ballem described the fence breaking as “very unexpected” and “unprecedented”. She faulted an “equipment failure” confined to the specific fence that broke on February 16.

According to Ballem, maximum capacity numbers for LiveCity Yaletown have not changed and security has not been tightened.

“We’ve been criticized for too much security,” she said, noting that alcohol is not served on site and that liquids—with the exception of sealed bottles of water—cannot be brought into LiveCity venues.

A concern raised in Internet comment forums since the February 16 incident is a slope in the ground that points in, towards the front and centre of the stage at LiveCity Yaletown. Some people have suggested that the slope could have contributed to the audience’s push through the barricade.

Ballem dismissed such speculation and emphasized that the city and Live Nation—LiveCity’s producer—did review the slope in question, as they did every aspect of the LiveCity Yaletown site.

“We had inspectors from every discipline in—before we opened—to assess the site,” Ballem said.

You can follow Travis Lupick on Twitter at twitter.com/tlupick.