Winds postpone festival
13/9/2004 13:34
Sudden strong winds forced organizers of a Roman festival in Pudong to call
off the event on Friday night, but it will reopen soon. The exact day for
reopening is not decided yet. The Roman Holiday was hit by strong winds
during the opening ceremony at around 8pm. The winds, which reached between
Force 7 and Force 8 (62 to 74 kilometers per hour), knocked down a 10-meter-high
steel rack that was used to prop up a large movie screen on the main
stage. It also damaged a scenic wall at the site, causing it to lean. The
accident resulted in chaos in the 70,000-square-meter venue on the waterfront in
Lujiazui, but no one was injured. The performance was suspended, and many
visitors complained they paid 60 yuan (US$7.23) admission fee to see
nothing. Organizers have promised the opening ceremony tickets will be valid
for any day after the event restarts. "We are now clearing the site and
checking the equipment to prevent similar things from happening," said Wang Dan,
an official from Shanghai SHL Art Event Co Ltd, one of the event's
organizers. She stressed all the problems were due to the bad weather, and
their facilities are all up to standard. "We were only told it would be
rainy, but not informed of the strong winds," she said. But she did admit the
opening was put together in a hurry and some of the arrangements were not quite
in place, but promised the problems will be fixed. Roman Holiday originates from
Rome's Fiesta, a popular two-month cultural event held in Italy annually for the
past eight years. The event is scheduled to last for 45
days.
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