Perth Festival Venue Evacuated After Upper Level Floor Collapse

Punters were forced to evacuate the Defectors Bar in Perth’s Flying Scotsman Hotel last night after the floor of the venue’s upper level began to cave in during the launch of the Beaufort Street Festival‘s 2013 program.

The Mount Lawley venue had 120 people in attendance, with the Defectors Bar area believed to have a capacity of 180. Festival director Aaron Rutter reported that about 10 minutes into the proceedings, there was a “big smash sound and the floor dropped a considerable amount.”

Mark Neal from The Music Perth, who was in attendance at the event, said it felt felt like the foundations of the building had shifted. “The room was on an angle, and all the bottles fell off the wall. Where the bottles had fallen off the wall, I could see where the bricks had separated. There was a lot of expensive scotch on the floor.”

The building was evacuated calmly and no injuries were reported. The Flying Scotsman have today released a statement confirming that the building does indeed have a structural issue:

“Due to a structural fault we have had to close the entire venue (Defectors Bar and the Velvet Lounge included) for the remainder of this evening as a safety precaution. We will have the best pub in P-town back up and running, business as usual, as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience and apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused.”

There’s no word on when the venue will be able to reopen, nor the fate of the expensive scotch.

(via The Music)

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