While spending an evening at a local social club, A vocalist in a band fell from the stage (approx 900mm high) He appeared unharmed, brushed himself off and continued with his song. Do normal WAH regs apply to the world of entertainment or are there exceptions for this? ie; how close they can go to the edge of a stage without requireing edge protection?

I did an assessment for this sort of hazard for a local amdram club a few years back. Putting up barriers is not an option. We ended up using fishing line stretched across the stage at a safe distance. Virtually invisible to the audience, it would not stop the fall but it was adequate to alert the artist to the close proximity of the drop. You can only do what you can do. Crack on.

Was he singing 'falling into you' by Celine Dion at the time ? On a serious note, it never ceases to amaze me that one scenario can be treated so differently from another. For example, a 900mm drop anywhere else (apart from a railway platform edge... another good example) would not be acceptable in a safety context. I'm sure there are ways of designing such things out SFAIRP but seldom are. Designing this type of issue out could also benefit persons otherwise unable to access a stage of this nature.

The use of strips of LED lights (low voltage) to highlight the presence of the front edges of theatre stages as mentioned by PH2 at #6 seems like a good idea which could be emulated for stages at other types of venues such as as village halls. Mention of theatres also prompts me to mention that musicians in deep orchestra pits at older tradional style theatres may be at significant risk from people or items falling from the stages and onto them. I saw an example of this happen some years ago while watching an operetta. During a vigorous dance one of the lead performers accidentally knocked over a wooden hat stand located as a prop near the front of the stage at one side. The stand fell into the orchestra pit and a brief pause ensued while the conductor checked and found that, thankfully, nobody had been hurt by the plummeting stand. The performance continued after the stand was put back on stage and probably located somewhat further back from the front edge.

Thats one reason why we opted for the fishing line as a warning.

Phil, your last point hits the nail on the head. Controls that are perfectly ok in one environment aren't necessarily the right ones in another. Before getting my first full time H&S job, I spent 15 years working on live events (live music, theatre, conferences, etc) in a mix of site-specific and touring productions. The one thing that's drummed into people working on these types of events is practice. If ten people need to simultaneously rearrange a stage in almost total darkness, in 10-15 seconds, while they're all wearing black then it's rehearsed until everyone knows the routine. The floor is marked (invisibly to the audience) to indicate hazards and it's normal for an entire tour to finish having completed thousands of complicated maneouvers like this without mishap. Performers are equally vigilant, so I'm surprised at the incident described - stage lights are always in your eyes, you get used to establishing reference points to keep yourself safe. Training and constant practice makes this all impressively second nature. Regulation is taken pretty seriously (PASMA / IPAF ticketed staff have been the norm for over 10 years) - http://www.abtt.org.uk/ is worth a look for anyone interested. My membership lapsed a few years ago, but they used to produce excellent codes of practice applying (for example) Work at Height regs to theatre shows and other live events.