The group The Offspring will long remember its trip to Bas-Saint-Laurent, because one of its vehicles caught fire Friday on Highway 20, near Rivière-Ouelle, en route to Rimouski for a show, Saturday night.
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“A call was made at 1:37 p.m. Friday for a burning vehicle on the right shoulder of the highway,” confirmed Stéphane Tremblay, spokesperson for the Sûreté du Québec (SQ).
According to information provided by the group, the Chevrolet Suburban could not avoid an automobile part that fell on the road, damaging the SUV and causing the fire.
In its social media post, the group says luggage, passports, laptops and almost everything else were destroyed. Which was confirmed by the SQ.
The organizers also breathed a sigh of relief when they heard the news.
“We didn’t have time to be afraid. We were quickly reassured,” says Marie-Pier Mercier, media relations manager for Les Grandes Fêtes Telus.
Show in Rimouski
One of the promoters of the event, Sébastien Tremblay, hastened to reassure bracelet holders on social media.
” Sick ! But The Offspring will be there with us and they will be on fire,” he wrote, sharing the video of the burning truck.
The Offspring had attracted 3,000 people for a show on Thursday evening in Sherbrooke. The next day, he was supposed to go to Rimouski, but, according to our information, the tour team finally slept in Saint-Pascal, in Kamouraska, because of this incident.
The performance of the California formation at the Great Telus Holidays was scheduled for 10:45 p.m. Saturday evening.
80,000 people pass through the Parc Beauséjour site in four days each year in Rimouski. This is the biggest music festival in Eastern Quebec.