The Aftermath of Disaster
By Andy Argyrakis, Senior Music Editor, GospelMusicChannel.com
It was business as usual when alternative rockers Starfield pulled up to Central Heights Church in Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada alongside its tour partners Shane & Shane, Bethany Dillon and speaker David Nasser. The sold-out show wasn’t exactly unusual for one of the country’s most popular Christian exports, especially considering this was the headliner’s hometown, plus the venue was a longstanding tour stop for many national acts and the site of a well attended Monday night worship service. But evening of April 25, 2008 ended in tragedy when the floor in front of the stage collapsed, sparking the lighting tower and speakers to fall, leaving at least 40 attendees injured and the 1,200 member capacity crowd in disarray.
“The first song of night that was kind of little more upbeat where people in the front started jumping, and as soon as we hit the chorus, the floor gave way,” recalls frontman Tim Neufeld. “We were yelling for them to stop jumping, but by that time [the floor] had already started falling. Myself and the bass player [David Crisp] jumped in the hole and started pulling debris off people. When the paramedics came, they figured out who was seriously injured and were attending to everyone [in the church’s lobby].”
Though there were no causalities and several were soon discharged from the hospital, some of the more serious injuries included one male fan who faced a partially crushed hand and a female who was in an induced coma, but has since come back to consciousness (though there’s still a risk of spinal cord damage that’s currently being assessed). Outside of taking up offerings for the most seriously injured, the group is calling upon the Canadian church and beyond to lift up victims in prayer, while resuming its concert schedule as a tribute to the Abbotsford audience’s bravery.
“We continued on tour because we really want to honor those that are injured by talking about them and sharing their stories,” he offers. “It’s also caused us to reassess everything, and we’ve spent a lot of time together debriefing in prayer. We’ve had some intense times with pastors where four of us were around the table just weeping before the Lord really compassionately for those still in hospital and in an attempt to deal with what’s going on.”
Investigations continue as to the exact cause of the accident as questions of fault and liability surface, which Tim cites as the most common curiosities asked of the group in the aftermath. “The media kind of wants a Great White story [the band who’s 2003 Rhode Island stage fire killed 100 concertgoers], not that they wanted casualties, but there’s a story in that,” the singer sums up. “We’re just praying that God does what He wants to do through this situation, to stay faithful to what He’s called us to and not worry beyond that about what’s going to happen…This is one of those situations where who knows why it happens and even physically why it happened? At end of day it’s an accident and trying to find blame doesn’t do any good at this point.”
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About the Writer
Andy Argyrakis is a Chicago-based entertainment writer/photographer who appears in the Chicago Tribune, Illinois Entertainer, Daily Journal, Concert Livewire, Hear/Say Magazine and Image Chicago (to name few). His record label writing credits include Warner Brothers, Atlantic, Curb, EMI and Universal, with additional photo credits for Fuse TV, Live Nation, Nikon, Pollstar, Celebrity Access, Paste Magazine, MTV.com and Vibe.com. He’s also the author/narrator of “Access Matthews” (an audio CD tracing the career of Dave Matthews Band) and spends considerable time on tour, including outings with Arlo Guthrie, The Guess Who, Madina Lake (on Linkin Park’s Projekt Revolution) and Gospel Music Channel’s very own “Gospel Dream” (where he served as season one judge).
