Date: Tuesday, February 16, 1999
Title: Club was not overcrowded, officials find
Author: JOHN HERBERT
Source: London Free Press
Source: http://www.canoe.ca/JamMusicArtistsC/carter_aaron.html
Topic: 1999 News
Not all parents who attended a downtown concert Sunday night that was delayed over safety concerns blamed the problem on overcrowding.
The event at the downtown bar DV8, featuring 11-year-old pop music sensation Aaron Carter, was delayed for more than an hour after some parents complained to fire officials and police that overcrowding had compromised safety.
Elaine Diesbourg, who took her 10-year-old daughter, Cassie, to the show for her birthday, said yesterday if some "older teens and parents'' had done what security staff had told them to do, there would have been no problems seeing the performance.
"They just wouldn't listen," she said.
"Security told everyone to sit down (on the floor) and when Aaron Carter came on stage, they stood up and helped create this rush forward to the stage.
"Security did an amazing job making sure everyone was all right, and they picked up some of the smaller kids and put them in front of the barrier where they could see.
"It was parents talking back who created the problem."
City and fire officials said yesterday there were no grounds to lay charges for overcrowding.
The Dundas Street club is the newest nightclub downtown, built in the former Duthler Textiles outlet that also includes the new Honest Lawyer restaurant.
Siva Markandu, one of the club's owners, said 660 tickets were sold for the Aaron Carter show, and 10 complimentary tickets were handed out.
The room is licensed to hold 700.
Fire officials Sunday night cleared a pathway to stairwells and an area in front of the stage before the concert resumed.
Rocky Cerminara, director of building controls for the city, said yesterday it appeared organizers did not oversell the concert.
"It is doubtful there would be any grounds for a charge,'' Cerminara said. "It would appear they were under the occupancy load maximum (700).
Maybe there was not proper crowd control. People were jammed up close to the stage.''
Fire Chief Dave Hodgins also said it is unlikely fire prevention officers will lay an overcrowding charge under the Ontario Fire Code.
The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario is investigating but will take no action unless an overcrowding charge is laid, a spokesperson said.
Many in the crowd were young teens who hoped Carter's older brother, Backstreet Boys singer Nick Carter, would show up.
Markandu said it wasn't the club's intention to overcrowd.
"There's no doubt we were within our legal rights.''
Aaron Carter will be back in London in June during a 14-day Canadian tour, and anyone with a ticket stub from Sunday's show can exchange it at a later date, he said.
The next concert will be held at a "bigger venue,'' he added.
