# Belvidere Apollo Theatre collapse

On the evening of March 31, 2023, a tornado struck the Apollo Theatre in Belvidere, Illinois, United States, which caused the ceiling of the theater to suffer a critical structural failure and collapse onto a sold-out concert. The show, headlined by the death metal band Morbid Angel, began despite advance knowledge of expected and imminent severe weather. After a half-hour storm break was instituted during the opening performance of the band Crypta, the tornado struck the theater. Winds of 90–100 miles per hour (140–160 km/h) caused the failure of the lower roof structure, with large amounts of debris falling into the venue, primarily onto concertgoers. Multiple people were buried by debris caused by the collapse. Concertgoers aided in removing debris from on top of others, before the arrival of the Belvidere Fire Department, who evacuated the building and handled search and rescue operations alongside emergency management agencies from three neighboring counties. One concertgoer was pronounced dead at the scene and 27 were taken to hospitals by ambulance, out of 48 that suffered non-fatal injuries.
The venue had been selected for the concert in November of the previous year, following the theater's remodeling as a concert venue. Severe weather was expected on the evening of March 31 in what became a historic tornado outbreak, but multiple people remained in the stage area after warnings for imminent severe weather were received. Following the collapse, the lack of safety protocols despite warning became the subject of multiple lawsuits. The Apollo Theatre was condemned the next day, suffering major damage to not only the roof over the stage but also the street-facing facade and the upper roof structure, of which the latter two were found on the street after the tornado. The venue reopened that September after multiple months of remodeling efforts and a brief fire on the reconstructed roof.

## Background

The Apollo Theatre opened on January 11, 1922 in Belvidere, Illinois. In 1975, the theater suffered a fire, forcing it to close. It was listed as a contributing property to the North State Street Historic District of Belvidere's National Register of Historic Places application in 2012, noting the unusual partially asymmetrical facade at ground level. The venue had been remodeled as the Apollo Theatre Activity Center, a concert and live music venue, in June 2022. The venue had been inspected by the Belvidere Fire Department in the past, which entailed a review of the venue's fire sprinkler system.
Belvidere had been struck by a violent F4 tornado before in 1967, which caused significant damage to the city. Hundreds of homes sustained damage, with 127 being completely destroyed. At the high school, children had been let out of school and were loading onto buses when the tornado struck, with 13 fatalities and 300 injuries occurring here, and in all the tornado killed 24 and caused 500 injuries.
In November 2022, the death metal band Morbid Angel announced the United States Tour of Terror 2023, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of their founding in 1983. The group toured alongside the fellow metal groups Revocation, Skeletal Remains, Vitriol, and Crypta. This tour brought them to Belvidere's Apollo Theatre AC on March 31, 2023, following the previous day's concert at Milwaukee's The Rave, and at both the aforementioned bands (minus Vitriol) were to perform.

## Timeline

A historic severe weather event occurred on March 31 across northern Illinois. Having expected severe conditions on March 31, the Storm Prediction Center outlined a rare high risk convective outlook, the highest risk category, for two areas that morning; a southern area including much of Arkansas, Mississippi, and Tennessee, and a northern area including parts of Iowa and northern Illinois, with Belvidere being placed in an enhanced risk, two categories below a high risk. The primary hazard across all risk areas was strong tornadoes, some of which were expected to potentially be long-tracked or violent. Earlier in the day, multiple significant tornadoes were reported across the Mississippi valley, including in Little Rock and Wynne, Arkansas. In the northern risk area, a violent tornado was reported near Keota, Iowa, and more tornadic storms developed and produced damaging tornadoes in the vicinity of the Quad Cities region of Iowa and Illinois that afternoon. Across much of northern Illinois, a tornado watch was issued at 2:35 pm which lasted until 10:00 pm that evening. An emergency operations center was established by the head of Boone County in anticipation of the severe conditions, and regional officials increased staffing for emergency response agencies across the area.
Event coordinators recorded that 260 people were inside the Apollo Theatre that night, including concertgoers, performers, and staff. The concert was completely sold out, and began at 7:00 pm. Crypta was the first band to take the stage, and the only one who performed prior to the collapse.
At 7:23 pm, a tornado warning was issued that included Boone County and Belvidere, until 8:30 pm. Municipal sirens began sounding around 7:24 pm. Also at this time, the damage path of an EF1 tornado began southwest of Davis Junction in rural Ogle County, which moved northeast towards Belvidere, crossing Interstate 90 in the southeast of the city around 7:40 pm. A tornado damage survey determined that the tornado had narrowed from roughly .5 mi (0.80 km) in width to .25 mi (0.40 km) as it approached Belvidere's central business district, while also increasing in intensity.

### Collapse

Following a performance by Crypta, a half-hour storm break was instituted. During this time, one concertgoer stated they recalled the windows breaking due to high winds, which was followed by multiple audience members being led to the venue's basement, until the tornado approached the building. At around 7:43 pm, the tornado struck the Apollo Theatre, with maximum winds estimated from damage between 90 and 100 mph (140 and 160 km/h) as it impacted the venue. The theater's street-facing facade and marquee collapsed. Behind the venue, a van used by Crypta was crushed by debris. Roughly three to five feet (0.91 to 1.52 m) of the venue's upper roof structure was completely removed, lofted, and dropped onto the street. The lower roof structure above the concert collapsed directly into the venue. While a small portion of the roof structure fell onto the stage, a majority landed on audience members. Belvidere Fire Chief Shawn Schadle stated that "at least 10" people had been buried by debris. A power line had been downed near the theatre, which caused a fire at a nearby garage. The tornado lifted at 7:49 pm.

### Response

Immediately following the collapse, an effort was made by concertgoers to remove the victims trapped under the resulting debris. The first notification to emergency management towards the situation at the theater was at 7:47 pm which described a mass casualty roof collapse. A response was organized within two minutes by the nearby Belvidere Fire Department, located two blocks from the Apollo Theatre. Lieutenant Drall of the Belvidere Fire Department was the first external response agent on the scene and took command of search and rescue operations upon arrival. Drall immediately recognized the building had been compromised and was at risk of total collapse; however, he allowed firefighters to enter the building and assist in rescue operations. At one point, an estimated thirty concertgoers, as well as twelve police officers and firefighters, attempted to lift the debris off the buried crowd members. The Fire Department then began directing concertgoers away from the site of the building due to the risk of a more serious structural failure.
At 8:52 pm, Morbid Angel released a post confirming the cancellation of the show, 70 minutes after the tornado hit. Fifty-one-year-old Frederick Forest Livingston Jr. was pronounced dead on the scene, and a total of 27 individuals, two of whom suffered life-threatening injuries, were transported to area hospitals by seven emergency management agencies, including several from neighboring Winnebago, Ogle, and McHenry counties. The total number treated at local hospitals attributable to the collapse rose to 40 by the morning of April 1.

## Aftermath

The next day, State Street in Belvidere was closed for debris removal. The Apollo Theatre, as well as one building across the street from it, had been condemned by April 1, however due to the building's historic status, structural engineers and surveyors had been contracted, as local officials hoped to salvage the building. On April 2, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker toured the site of the damaged theater, alongside Alicia Tate-Nadeau of the Illinois Emergency Management Agency, who stated that "[i]f it wasn't for the fast and coordinated efforts, on Friday night, we would have seen a more tragic outcome from events from today".
The United States Tour of Terror 2023 resumed with a performance in Hobart, Indiana, on April 2. A promoter for the event described the performance as "emotional" as Morbid Angel and Crypta, alongside other acts, paid tribute to Livingston and the other victims of the concert at Belvidere.
One year following the collapse, Belvidere Fire Chief Shawn Schadle commended the efforts of the concertgoers who assisted in removing debris trapping audience members during the collapse, stating [t]hey didn't have to be there. They could have gone out to safety. A lot of them stayed there. We all worked together to organize the rescue of at least ten people. On May 12, 2024, Governor Pritzker and Illinois Fire Marshall James Rivera honored six firefighters who assisted with the response to the collapse of the Apollo Theatre at the Annual Fallen Firefighter Memorial and Medal of Honor Ceremony in Springfield, Illinois. In a May 2024 interview during Emergency Medical Services Week, Mike Lowe of Boone County Fire District #2 said the collapse of the Apollo Theatre "was a call that nobody was really prepared for. I mean, we trained and practiced, but we hadn't had that before".

### Victims and legal actions

The sole deceased victim was identified as 51-year-old Frederick Livingston Jr. of Belvidere. Livingston had been at the concert with his son Alex, who survived despite standing nearby his father at the time of the collapse. Livingston was discovered by emergency management removed from debris, likely moved by fellow concertgoers, while wearing a concert t-shirt, and was pronounced dead on the scene. In an interview with the ABC affiliate in Chicago WLS-TV, lead singer of Crypta Fernanda Lira said that Livingston had previously purchased a band shirt from them during the concert, being the only audience member to do so. She advocated for others to support Livingston's family. A GoFundMe campaign had been created to raise money for his family following the concert. By April 14, the campaign had raised $45,053, exceeding the goal set at $20,000.
By June 28, 2023, six lawsuits had been filed against the theater for failing to protect concertgoers from the risk of injury or death. By March 2024, the number of lawsuits had risen to eleven, on behalf of nineteen concertgoers and the family of Frederick Livingston. One lawsuit alleges that when a tornado warning was issued, Crypta was allowed to continue their act, while only those on the venue's balcony were led to the basement, not those near the stage where the collapse occurred. The defendants, the owner Maria Martinez and her husband alongside the concert's promoter FM Entertainment, allege that all concertgoers were asked to enter the venue's basement when the warning was issued, but chose willingly to remain near the stage, while also stating the tornado was an act of God.

### Recovery efforts

Hopes for the Apollo Theatre's recovery began shortly after the collapse. Belvidere Fire Chief Shawn Schadle stated the morning after the concert that he believed the building was remodeled after preliminary surveys by structural engineers indicated further collapse of the venue was unlikely and that repairs might be possible. Friends of the Coronado, a group that previously restored the Coronado Theatre of Rockford, Illinois, expressed interest in sharing resources for the Apollo Theatre's response to the collapse, with one architect also emphasizing that the historic theater was worth preserving. Maria Martinez, the owner of the venue, opened a GoFundMe campaign on April 14 to finance the rebuilding of the theater with a goal of $250,000; the campaign closed in June, having only raised $3,200.
On June 6, as recovery efforts were underway, a small fire broke out on the roof of the theater as a contractor who had been welding inadvertently ignited nearby flammable material. The fire was quickly extinguished before it could cause structural damage.
The theater reopened on September 15, 2023, less than six months after the tornado. At a private event commemorating the structure's restoration, Martinez stated that funding for the project had been primarily from insurance and personal funds, with none coming from disaster relief funds at the state or national level. The theater's first public event following the collapse was a free concert coinciding with Mexican Independence Day.