The floor at Sydney’s Enmore Theatre in Newtown has collapsed during the sold-out first stop of Genesis Owusu‘s Australian tour, causing the audience to be evacuated and the show to be halted shortly after Owusu’s set began.
Last night (March 3), Owusu was midway through the second song of his performance, ‘The Other Black Dog’, when attendees began noticing that a large section of the floor had sunk, with the venue’s carpeting covering it. This prompted Owusu to stop the set, with patrons evacuated and the show coming to a halt. No injuries were reported.
“There’s a real big drop after that, so this is actually really dangerous. We’re going to have to reschedule the show, because this is like a four metre drop,” Owusu said when addressing the crowd. “I love you all, you guys have been amazing. This is really shit.”
University of Sydney student newspaper Honi Soit captured footage showing some of the damage. See that, and other images from the show, below:
BREAKING: The floor of the Enmore Theatre has just collapsed. No injuries reported, the event occured just two songs into tonight's Genesis Owusu gig. pic.twitter.com/14TrjoC0zH
— Honi Soit (@honi_soit) March 3, 2022
Wow. @genesisowusu crowd has broken the floor at the Enmore Theatre in Sydney. The floor has sunk in the middle of the mosh. Show rescheduled, no one hurt expect a lot of hearts desperate to see this rising star perform pic.twitter.com/UuYNDogfjP
— Emily Ritchie (@emritchiewrites) March 3, 2022
Well tonight’s @genesisowusu show certainly took a turn as the floor of the Enmore caved in 2 songs in. Extremely on brand with 2022 so far. pic.twitter.com/IIFah3N7Lz
— Katie Rynne (@katierynne) March 3, 2022
that floor is meant to slope upwards pic.twitter.com/TmIo0JtlNv
— Georgia Griffiths (@georgiajgriff) March 3, 2022
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Owusu responded succinctly, writing on his Instagram Story: “LMAO WTF. Love u all see u soon.” It has not yet been announced when the rescheduled show will take place.
The Enmore Theatre has since shared a statement regarding the incident, writing: “Last night we made the decision to stop the Genesis Owusu show due to three piers at the point where the theatre inclines shifting underneath the carpet, creating an uneven floor. This occurred due to the impact of the relentless rain and excessive water inundating the suburb.
“The floor of the theatre has been assessed and remediation works have commenced. We have isolated the section that was affected by water and are further reinforcing the surrounding areas as a further precaution.”
All currently booked shows – including tonight’s Young Franco gig – are set to go ahead at the venue despite the incident. “Audience safety is a top priority at the Enmore Theatre and we have had teams working around the clock since last night’s events to ensure that the venue is safe,” a representative for the venue has commented.
“The floor has been repaired and reinforced, and the theatre has been fully assessed to confirm that there is no risk to our patrons at shows going ahead.” Allday, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard and The Whitlams are all also booked to perform at the Enmore in the coming week.
The 2500-capacity venue, built in 1908, has undergone multiple refurbishments over the year, most recently in 2020 and 2021.
The incident took place the same day that Genesis Owusu was awarded the $30,000 Australian Music Prize for debut album ‘Smiling with No Teeth’, beating the likes of Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, Hiatus Kaiyote, King Gizzard, Baker Boy and Amyl and the Sniffers.
Owusu’s Australian tour continues tonight in Adelaide with a show as part of Adelaide festival, before wrapping up with stops in Brisbane and Melbourne next weekend.