Storms Collapse Stage during Rocklahoma

***ROCKLAHOMA UPDATE, DAY 4***
by Dave Felix

Earlier this afternoon, after making their triumphant return to the stage after a 13 year hiatus, New Jersey's own TRIXTER burst into their signature hit "Give It To Me Good" to round off their amazing comeback set. What the band didn't realize was that something was just about to give it to EVERYONE good!

Torrential thunderstorms hit the Pryor, Oklahoma area as well as the 2008 ROCKLAHOMA festival sending fans, bands and security alike heading for cover.

The first wave of severe thunderstorms hit the area around 5:45pm. We could see the clouds gathering but no one expected anything like this. Brian Rademacher and myself retreated to the main press tent just moments before it hit. As the rain begain, the wind picked up to anywhere from 20 to 40 miles per hour, we've been told. The bindings on the tents themselves burst open, the restraining stakes and wooden beams supporting the tent began to buckle and the water flooded in sending everyone heading for shelter.

But this wasn't the worst part. What we found out later was that both side stages were utterly oblitterated in the chaos. The Tri-Label stage was the first to go. As described by one eye witness, "I made it to the VIP tent just in time. As I turned around, I watched the support beams crumble and the stage come crashing to the ground." Fortunately there was no one on the stage itself at the time and all the power had wisely been cut in leu of the coming storm. But still, we over heard that several people were hurt on that side and even a portion of the VIP tent itself was damaged.

The Retrospect stage didn't fair much better. After things calmed down about 45 minutes later, as the huddled masses back in the press area began to break up, Brian and I started our walk back to the parking area. The first thing we noticed was the stage completely demolished as you can see by the pictures. Fortunately no one was hurt on this side and after a closer inspection of the wreckage, any hope of even trying to re-erect the structure may be completely lost.

As we continued on, we over-heard many rumors from the scrambling security guards. One that wasn't, however, was that the entire area was put in a short lock-down so that the injured could be swiftly moved off the premises.

Needless to say, we had seen enough and left with the swarms of fans exiting the area with the threat of even more storms coming into the area through out the evening. We are not "totally"sure if even the headling acts schedule for the main stage would be able to continue but we'll have more on that in the days to come.

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