The incident took place during the 'Pepsi voice of the next generation' band competition on 18 July, the night Typhoon Molave hit Southeast China’s coast.
A video of the outdoor event surfaced on YouTube depicting the collapse while Taiwanese singer Peter Pan performed on stage beneath it.
Rumours immediately circulated around social media sites, particularly in Taiwan, that Pan, the event’s MC and several staff members at the concert had been killed. However, sources from both Pepsi and Chime-Long Paradise, the amusement park where the concert took place, say the accident only caused minor injuries.
“At the Pepsi battle of the bands concert on the evening of 18 July in Guangzhou, due to the sudden early arrival of the typhoon, the concert was stopped abruptly,” chief marketing officer of Pepsi Greater China Harry Hui said in a statement to Media. “During Taiwanese singer’s Peter Pan performance on stage, the weather worsened dramatically with torrential rain and wind. As the host was announcing that the concert was to be terminated, telling everyone to leave the stage and the venue, the LED on the stage was blown over by the strong wind. Peter Pan was pulled away by CETV staff. Pan suffered a minor injury to his hand, while a staff member from CETV also sustained a head injury.”
The statement added that people were taken to a local hospital, adding that a second night of the concert took place at the Shenzhen Convention Centre on 19 July as scheduled, including the same host, Peter Pan and all other artists.
Pepsi did not address questions regarding its PR response to the rumours.
“If there’s a concert and the video screen falls, you’ll hear about it,” one Beijing-based PR source said. “It’s just not suppressible.”
Another PR source in Beijing said: “It seems that due to Pepsi’s even more extraordinary PR work, so far no mainstream media outlet has talked about the accident.”
Mainland sources add that a video of the incident was posted then removed from Tudou.com. Representatives from Tudou and Pepsi would not comment on the rumour, though a video industry source speculated that it may have been pulled due to an ‘accuracy’ policy sites such as Tudou employ, designed to prevent misleading videos being circulated.
The 'Pepsi voice of the next generation' campaign, launched in April, involves a nationwide search for China’s best up-and-coming rock band. It will include an American Idol-style TV show to be carried on Zhejiang Satellite TV.
