Winds postpone festival
(Shanghai Daily)
Updated: 2004-09-13 09:21

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.