Huge Video Screen Falls Onto Dancers During Performance From Hong Kong Boy Band, Authorities Investigating
A lot of chaotic, dangerous things have seemingly been happening at big pop concerts lately. Earlier this week, fans snuck fireworks into Dua Lipa’s Toronto show and set them off inside the arena. Last night in Hong Kong, something significantly worse happened. The hugely popular boy band Mirror were performing at a Hong Kong arena when a giant video screen fell onto two backup dancers, leaving both of them injured.
Last night, as The New York Times reports, Mirror were in the middle of a 12-show residency at the Hong Kong Coliseum, a venue that seats 12,500 people, when a video screen fell, landing edge-down on the neck of one backup dancer. The screen then fell backwards on top of that dancer and another. Both dancers have been hospitalized, and one of them is in intensive care. According to authorities, the screen measured about 210 square feet and weighed about 1,300 pounds.
There’s footage of the screen falling, but you should be advised that it’s graphic and disturbing. This isn’t a funny video of someone falling onstage; it’s a scene of what looks like an actual life-threatening accident.
When the screen fell, Mirror members Edan and Anson Lo were reportedly performing, and they didn’t immediately realize what had happened behind them. As the other dancers tried to lift the screen off of their colleagues, the Mirror members tried to check on them before officials removed them from the stage so that emergency personnel could come in.
John Lee, chief executive of Hong Kong, says that he’s asked government agencies to “review the safety requirements of similar performance activities.” Hong Kong authorities also claim that they contacted concert organizers to ask about “stage incidents in the past few days” before the screen fell. This follows an incident on Tuesday night when Mirror member Frankie Chan Sui-fai fell off the Hong Kong Coliseum stage while performing. He wasn’t seriously hurt. After the screen fell, the venue cancelled the rest of Mirror’s shows.
Mirror, a 12-member boy band, were formed in 2018, through a reality TV show. They sing in Cantonese, and they were influenced by K-pop acts like BTS. The group’s popularity grew through the past few years, working as an escapist outlet for Hong Kong residents who have been rocked by the pandemic, as well as a Chinese government crackdown and the attendant protests that followed. The members of the group have been painstakingly apolitical, but their music has still reportedly served as an engine of excitement for young people in Hong Kong.