2023 – Collapse of the Madonna stage at the Vélodrome

On 16 July 2009, the stage for Madonna’s concert at the Stade Vélodrome in Marseille collapsed during assembly. A brutal tragedy: two dead, eight injured, and a worker who took his own life two years later. A workplace accident that should never have happened, but which revealed, once again, the toll that economic imperatives can take on workers’ safety.

A case weighed down by a slow investigation

Our firm was instructed in 2023 to represent the family of one of the victims, a worker who fell to his death when the roof of the structure, a 30-tonne steel monster suspended 25 metres high, collapsed in a matter of seconds.

Although emblematic, the case got lost in the maze of the judicial investigation. A first investigating judge was removed from the case; a second took it over, only to leave it at the bottom of a drawer for more than a year. Expert reports followed one after another, sometimes contradictory, often incomplete. Unbearable delays for the victims’ families, forced to wait, powerless. Exasperated, they repeatedly threatened direct action, even considering chaining themselves to the top of a crane to draw attention to their cause.

A rushed job, safety sacrificed

The investigation revealed that the disaster was anything but an unforeseeable accident. A hoist motor, essential to support the structure, had been found defective at the last minute. Rather than postpone the assembly, it was hastily replaced with a crane, using a sling that was supposed to bear the load. A precarious, improvised set-up cobbled together in a hurry. When it gave way, the structure collapsed at once, throwing the workers into the void.

Investigators also found that the site had no risk assessment plan worthy of the name. No consideration of technical constraints, no appropriate safety measures. One prosecutor summed up the case in a cutting phrase: “It was more like setting up a circus in a village square than a stage for a world tour.”

A verdict that raises questions about the liability of principals

After more than ten years of investigation and four months of deliberation, the Marseille criminal court handed down suspended sentences against those mainly responsible.

• Jacqueline Bitton, president of Live Nation France, received a two-year suspended prison sentence, a €20,000 fine and a two-year ban from practising.
• Tim Norman, head of ESG, was sentenced to two years suspended and a €15,000 fine.
• Mathieu Anton and Scott Seaton, involved in organising the site, were sentenced to 18 months and one year suspended respectively, together with fines.

The companies involved were also penalised:

• Live Nation France was ordered to pay a €150,000 fine.
• Tours Concept France, the construction subcontractor, was fined €50,000.

The court found that the roof collapse resulted from incorrect positioning of the sling, causing a steel beam to fail suddenly. A chain of human and technical errors, made easier by site management in which profitability took precedence over safety.

A verdict that leaves a bitter taste

Despite the convictions, the sentences remain light given the scale of the tragedy. A justice system that recognises the fault, but still seems reluctant to come down hard on principals. Meanwhile, our client’s family, like the other victims, continues to fight so that workers’ safety is no longer a luxury that can be neglected.

Read an article in Le Figaro on the case (in French): Link to the article