The slope

At around 10pm, after the contest ended, and as 40,000 mostly young spectators began storming out of the stadium, a fence suddenly broke, sending around 100 people down a slippery hill, killing five girls. This is the end of a black day in the history of in-city snowboarding. More than 30 people were hurt, some seriously and hospitals around Innsbruck were working full-time through the night.

Four of those killed were pronounced dead at the scene and a fifth died en route to the hospital.

Some details about the Bergisel stadium. It was actually built for ski-jumping competitions, and was the site of the '64 and '76 Olympic Games. This is the seventh Air & Style event to take place in the stadium which is owned by Peter Schröcksnadel's company. Schröcksnadel works for the ÖSV, the Austrian Ski Federation. The ski comps have never sold out and organizers would give out free tickets in the city in order to get people to come. I have been there once or twice and even the ski-jumping is quite unique there.

But the stadium has been filled to capacity during concerts and there have been no problems, until today.

Who knows if this will be the last contest? I hope also that the tragedy will not overshadow the great event.

— Nils, MountainZone.com European Correspondent