In what can only be described as a tantrum – wrapper Kid Cudi has damaged thousands of dollars worth of equipment when his set was cut short at an Australian music festival.

My first response to his dummy spit was to question why the operators left the P.A. and lighting rig on in the first place? When he started with his behavior, mute the P.A. and turn the lights off. He was obviously feeding off the audience reaction – especially after knocking the first lamp off it’s stand.

More importantly though – why weren’t these valuable items rigged properly? The lamps should have just been sitting on top of a road case. In Kid Cudi’s case – he pushed them off with ease – but what if somebody tripped and fell in to a road case and ended up with a lamp on top of them?

This is a prime example of exactly what not to do on a stage on so many levels. Don’t have security that fail to react to a dangerous situation, don’t leave a stage lit when somebody is trashing it and don’t be lazy when rigging lights in an environment where they could easily topple off.

I’d love to know who’s insurance is going to pay for the repairs, and I would love to know the reaction of the hire companies concerned. Given a ratchet strap or two could have potentially stopped or at the very least minimised all this damage.

Yes, this is clearly a malicious act by a tantrum throwing flavor of the month who surely won’t be held to account – but it is equally a failing of the designers and riggers who put the things there in the first place ready to fall.