Nightwish bass player Marco Hietala was one of the performers in Vaasa. Archive picture by Tony Öhberg for Finland Today
A concert titled “Heavy Christmas (Raskasta Joulua)”, where Holiday evergreens turn into moshable melodies, suffered an abrupt ending on Sunday evening when big ventilation pipes and lamp rails came crashing down over the audience standing near the stage at Vaasa Arena in Vaasa, the largest city of the Ostrobothnia region.
At least seven people were injured and taken to the Vaasa Central Hospital to receive medical care. According to the Ostrobothnia rescue department, luckily no people were seriously injured.
Ostrobothnians love a good fight and heavy riffs, and their most important venue to watch boxing and mosh until their necks hurt is Vaasa Arena, which fits snugly about 4,000 people.
On Sunday, the concert, was attended by about 3,000 metal fans and was immediately stopped, but ugly information has since popped to the surface. According to entertainment news site Stara, the ventilation pipe that fell down has, according to reliable sources, lately been waggling.
Even if no one expected the pipe to fall, defective attachment may very well have been the reason for the accident.
The thundering sound of metal was simply the last straw.
A spectator caught the dangerous crash on video.
Vaasa is located about 420 kilometers from Helsinki. The city has a population of about 67,000 people.
