Direct Line

Nature must be delivering a rather dreadful message to us. She is not enthralled, perhaps, with the kind of popular music to which people tend to throng, outside of theatres and concert halls which tend for the most part to indulge in the kind of music we acclaim as classical. It is the outdoor theatres with their massive knock-down stages that enthuse the young who vibrate to the music of their times that the atmosphere appears to be taking exception to.

In the process, causing inadvertent deaths among concert-attendees who thought they were turning out in their droves for entertainment, and the time of their lives, little understanding that some of them would, in the process, be giving up their lives. And while it's true that weather events across the world have become unpredictably and extremely violent, who might anticipate such a series of innocent events would turn so horribly deadly?

The first such event occurred in Canada, at the site of Ottawa's annual, successful Bluesfest on July 17th, when a sudden storm chugging down the Ottawa River overtook events as the sky turned darker by the second and a monstrous wind blew down the main stage while a band named Cheap Trick was concluding their performance.

Three people suffered the misfortune of injury as the crowd of thousands made their mildly panicked, but orderly progression to safety, to wait out the storm's conclusion. The manufacturer of the rented stage admitted to having had a previous stage collapse, even though the design of the stage was said to have been guaranteed to be able to withstand high winds.

In the United States a week ago, at the Indiana State Fair, a heavy wind gust had the similar effect of bringing down the stage rigging for a Sugarland country music concert. On that occasion, five people were killed, and another 45 people were injured. The deaths and injuries far surpassed the fearsome outcome of the Ottawa Bluesfest's catastrophe; in Indiana carnage ensued.

And just a few days ago a horrendously violent windstorm complete with hail destroyed what was to have been an outdoor rock music festival in northern Belgium. There, three people were killed outright as two stages collapsed, one of which fell on the concert-goers. Forty other people were injured, eleven of them seriously.

In each of these events there were tens of thousands of people who had come out to annual outdoor concerts. In each of these events people explained:

"The sky suddenly turned pitch black and we took shelter waiting for the rain. Then suddenly, there was a downpour. The wind blew violently. There were hailstones bigger than a centimetre falling. Trees toppled over. It was unbelievable, the end of the world."

And then, there is this other event, in Spain, billed as World Youth Day, where hundreds of thousands of pilgrims gathered from across the world to converge on Madrid, to greet Pope Benedict XVI. He was to have led a prayer vigil on an immense esplanade just outside the city. The esplanade the size of 48 football fields. People gathered there were assailed by extreme heat.

"Water, Water, Water!" pilgrims shouted as firemen sprayed the tiny field hospital tending to people who had suffered dizziness, fainting and heatstroke as a result of the torrid temperature. When the pope ascended the stage to speak to the faithful, the heavens parted to unleash a storm of hugely torrential proportions. There was wind too that lashed the area.

When the rain finally ended, the Pope exclaimed: "Thank you for your joy and endurance. Your strength is greater than the rain. The Lord with the rain has given us many blessings. In this, too, you are an example. The crowd chanted "Long live the Pope", while a 200-member choir and orchestra played the event's special anthem.

Nature moves in mysterious ways.