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<blockquote data-quote="Tim McCulloch" data-source="post: 47489" data-attributes="member: 67">Re: New outdoor stage laws?!?!Hi Gordon-In the USA, city or county governments are usually in charge of code enforcement (as they also get to set their own Codes as part of &quot;home rule&quot;).&nbsp; For most of us who&#039;ve dealt with local building inspectors, knowing they&#039;ll be the ones to go over roof structures and staging systems does not give us great enthusiasm.It will require either creation of a different class of inspector, like the *real* engineers used in the UK/EU, or at least training existing inspectors to determine if any pre-approved engineering documents supplied by the designer/manufacturer have been implemented AS DESIGNED.I&#039;ve seen the fire inspector at many festivals, making sure the stage and roof were grounded and that proper fire extinguishers were deployed, checking flammability certificates... but&nbsp; I don&#039;t recall seeing a competent structural inspector.&nbsp; In fact, the last time I did a festival site design the folks that showed up for the meeting were me &amp; my staff, a representative from law enforcement, emergency medical, and fire dept.&nbsp; Not a building or code inspector to be found.&nbsp; That&#039;s why some of the posters are concerned about how new codes will be dealt with.In my locale, it&#039;s ironic that a wedding needs a permit to put up a tent on the family lawn, but we can build a load-bearing structure with almost no oversight.&nbsp; That isn&#039;t the case in many places, but for those who work in markets outside the top 50 or so, it&#039;s the way things are done.It would have been nice if &quot;the industry&quot; could have agreed on a standard before the Indiana St. Fair last year, but it didn&#039;t.&nbsp; Enforcing it would have been a joke anyway; the people that hold the purse strings will simply give the &quot;show must go on&quot; orders.&nbsp; If the supplier doesn&#039;t agree he either won&#039;t get paid or sued for breach of contract if he withholds services... and he certainly wouldn&#039;t get re-hired.All of this because somebody thought that playing the headline artist with impending violent storms was a good idea...</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Tim McCulloch, post: 47489, member: 67"] Re: New outdoor stage laws?!?! Hi Gordon- In the USA, city or county governments are usually in charge of code enforcement (as they also get to set their own Codes as part of "home rule"). For most of us who've dealt with local building inspectors, knowing they'll be the ones to go over roof structures and staging systems does not give us great enthusiasm. It will require either creation of a different class of inspector, like the *real* engineers used in the UK/EU, or at least training existing inspectors to determine if any pre-approved engineering documents supplied by the designer/manufacturer have been implemented AS DESIGNED. I've seen the fire inspector at many festivals, making sure the stage and roof were grounded and that proper fire extinguishers were deployed, checking flammability certificates... but I don't recall seeing a competent structural inspector. In fact, the last time I did a festival site design the folks that showed up for the meeting were me & my staff, a representative from law enforcement, emergency medical, and fire dept. Not a building or code inspector to be found. That's why some of the posters are concerned about how new codes will be dealt with. In my locale, it's ironic that a wedding needs a permit to put up a tent on the family lawn, but we can build a load-bearing structure with almost no oversight. That isn't the case in many places, but for those who work in markets outside the top 50 or so, it's the way things are done. It would have been nice if "the industry" could have agreed on a standard before the Indiana St. Fair last year, but it didn't. Enforcing it would have been a joke anyway; the people that hold the purse strings will simply give the "show must go on" orders. If the supplier doesn't agree he either won't get paid or sued for breach of contract if he withholds services... and he certainly wouldn't get re-hired. All of this because somebody thought that playing the headline artist with impending violent storms was a good idea... [/QUOTE]

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