It's Raining, It's Pouring. . .

There's a reason we usually don't set up our stage and canopy in April and May. We got lucky a couple of weeks ago with the Earth Day Festival with sunny skies and nice weather but Saturday proved to be just the opposite. We woke up to pouring rain and a dark, overcast sky. We had an 8 a.m. set up so we pulled the stage out to the site assuming the event would be canceled and we probably wouldn't have to set anything up. The man who hired us walked outside (in the POURING rain) and said, "I think it's lightened up. Let's go ahead and set up." He then went back inside the warm, dry building and we began to set up. . .

We were able to put together the truss under a large tent . . .

But, of course, we eventually had to stand out in the POURING rain to put the rest of the canopy together. . .

After we staked it down we cranked it up a bit. . .

. . . and pulled the stage underneath the canopy so it wouldn't get too wet (HA!).

After about 3 hours, our set up was complete and our job here was done until 5:00 when the event was over and we could take it all down. We left the scene and headed to the Civic Center to unload a few things for another show. The sun even came out as we were leaving and the rain slowed to a drizzle. . .

Around 2:30, we were headed back to the event site to drop off the truck before going home for a couple of hours. Shortly before we got there, the skies turned dark, the wind picked up a bit and the clouds didn't hold anything back as they dumped seemingly everything they had onto our stage and canopy. . . When we finally found a place to park and made our way to the stage, this is what we found:

Even though we had pitched the canopy so the rain could run off, the quick spring storm dumped enough water in a short amount of time that it collected in a nice big pool inside our canopy. While the guy running sound frantically pulled all of his (soaking wet) speakers off of the stage, I waited for the whole canopy to rip open and dump it's contents onto the stage. . .

Even after we cranked it down, the canopy remained intact and the canopy ties holding it together held tight. In this picture, you can see the water line and just how deep of a "puddle" had formed during the short storm:

I fully expected the canopy to split wide open, soaking everything in it's path at any moment. We even had a bit of a crowd watching the excitement. I stood back expectantly and took a video. . .


Rob and Kurt were looking for the best way to empty the canopy with the least amount of damage. I took another video. . .


Amazingly enough, the canopy and the canopy ties held strong . . .

Finally, Rob decided to just snip the last couple of ties that were holding everything in . . .


It was a huge amount of water but the whole thing could have been so much worse.

It was reassuring to know that our canopy can take this kind of pressure and hold together!!

We were told by several people that the event was over so we began to take the rest of the canopy down. The guy who hired us came out of the warm, dry building and told us he'd like to continue if we could put things back together. There was still a good crowd and they were planning to continue with the event until 5:00. . .

It didn't take too long to re-attach the canopy and, all things considered, everything was still in pretty good shape. . .

Just as we were ready to crank it back up, the dry guy let us know that they wouldn't need the stage anymore since the guy with the sound system wasn't willing to bring his stuff back out. We decided to wait a bit before taking it all down, just in case. . .

The sun was kind enough to come out as we were taking it all down and packing it away. . . I felt like a drowned rat most of the day so the sunshine was very welcome. . .

The stage and canopy came down much quicker than they went up. . .

It was quite a day and, as of right now, we won't have another stage/canopy set up until June when the weather should be a bit more settled. . .