The technical report on the structures of the Medusa music festival held this summer in the Valencian town of Cullera, in which one was killed and several dozen injured after a thermal burst, concludes that there were assembly failures in the anchoring of certain structures auxiliaries.
The study points out that the documentation of the activity project was "insufficient" since it did not describe "all those structures considered as auxiliary".
Among these were the aluminum porticos that marked the accesses to the bathrooms and those of the emergency exits that fell during the meteorological phenomenon that caused a sudden rise in temperature and very strong gusts of wind.
One of these structures was the one that caused the death of a 22-year-old young man in the early hours of August 13,
According to the report, written by two architects and carried out at the request of the court itself, the lack of reference to the auxiliary structures in the activity project meant that they were assembled "without the supervision of the responsible technicians."
The study also concludes that "the anchors failed due to definition and assembly failures."
“Some because they did not exist and others because they were insufficient, with a resistance to tearing that was much lower than the traction force that was needed to resist the traction caused by the wind”, he adds.
Regarding these auxiliary structures, the report emphasizes that the damage suffered was due to "overturning" and not due to broken parts.
“So the structure itself has not failed.
What has failed is its anchoring to the ground or the counterweights”, he indicates.
The decoration of the main stage was also not included in that activity project.
"The decoration and its attachment to the structure, which is what failed, are not described in the project", indicates the report that specifies that, however, the structure was described in the project and, therefore, it was inspected.
"The structure was not damaged, but part of the decoration was detached from the structure by the wind," the letter describes.
The technical report carries out an exhaustive analysis of the aluminum porticos.
“These types of structures are light and resistant and are designed for temporary installations of all kinds and in all locations.
Both for indoors and outdoors.
Therefore, they have to be adapted to the circumstances in which they are installed”, he explains.
Regarding the canvases that supported these structures and that indicated the accesses to the bathrooms and emergency exits, they were "very thick canvases that offer great resistance to the wind, practically becoming sails that collect the force of the wind and transmit it to the structure." ”, describe the architects.
According to the documentation sent by the company, to avoid overturning, the placement of counterweights with water tanks was foreseen.
"In the actual installation, both water tanks and flower pots are placed" but, as the technical report indicates, the heavier flower pots were even safer than the water tanks.
However, the problem was not with the counterweights but with the anchorage.
In the first portico access to the bathrooms, the technicians found that among the six columns on which the structure rested, the two central ones had no support, nor did the rear one on the left have any support, while the front ends were placed deposits that acted as a counterweight and a pickaxe was also placed on the right front, which, in any case, "due to the remains of the ground, it can be seen that the depth of the anchorage to the ground was very shallow".
“This redundancy of supports in the front pillar and absence in the rear suggests that there is an error in the assembly of the installation and that the peg should have been placed in the rear pillar”, conclude the architects.
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