A major sewer fatberg, described as a “large blockage of fat, grease and rags”, forced Bryan Adams’ concert in Perth to be cancelled after it was scheduled to start on Sunday night (Feb 9)
The Canadian singer-songwriter was due to perform at the RAC Arena when authorities said that the blockage posed the risk of sewage backing up within the venue toilets and becoming a potential public health risk, according to a statement on Facebook by the Water Corporation of Western Australia.
A fatberg is a huge mass of solid waste in a sewerage system typically formed when fat, oil and personal hygiene products that have been flushed down toilets bind together.
Frontier Touring, the Australian concert promoter for Adams’ concert, said that the tickets would be automatically refunded to patrons.
“Last night’s concert could not proceed due to an external Perth Water Corporation issue, which was unable to be fixed in time,” the concert promoter said on Instagram on Monday.
“The issue, which impacted all of Wellington Street, meant that it was deemed unsafe for patrons to enter RAC Arena.”
They added: “The cancellation of (the) show is bitterly disappointing, and we thank fans for their understanding that while every effort was made for the show to proceed, this matter was outside of the control of Bryan Adams, Frontier Touring and RAC Arena.”
The Canadian singer-songwriter is best known for his best-selling singles Summer of ‘69 in 1984 and (Everything I Do) I Do It for You in 1991.
Adams’ concert in Perth was part of his So Happy It Hurts tour with English singer-songwriter James Arthur opening for Adams at about 7.45pm.
Patrons were notified on text at about 7:15pm that the concert had been delayed, and then at about 7:35pm that the doors had to remain closed.
At around 9pm, it was confirmed that the concert was delayed “due to an external Water Corporation water supply issue which could not be resolved”.
Many fans had queued and waited for hours before the start of the concert only to be turned away.
“Public health must always come first and that was the basis of last night’s decision,” said the Water Corporation in another statement released on Monday (Feb 10) on Facebook.
“Contingencies, including the use of sucker trucks, were considered, but the volume of wastewater generated by a capacity crowd of 16,000 people at the Arena was considered too great,” they added.
“We can certainly understand people’s disappointment and frustration. We want to reassure them that crews worked incredibly hard to clear this blockage so the concert could go ahead.”
The corporation said that the blockage was cleared around 11.15pm the same night and that the wastewater overflows at various sites have since stopped.
They added: “While last night was an incredibly rare occurrence, it’s an important reminder to not flush things down the toilet or sink that can lead to these problems.”
