Zielona Góra: While we are dancing labado, the grandstand is falling

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Edited by: boletus May 25, 11, 17:49 #1

source: http://wyborcza.pl/1,75248,9662613,Tanczymy_labado__trybuna_wali_sie.h tml

No fans jump as uniformly as those at Falubaz stadium. This can destroy every grandstand. The experts advise - prohibit labado dancing! Zielona Góra has a problem with its speedway stadium.

The origin of "labado" or "labada" comes from a playful group dance, often performed during weddings. An arbitrarily large group of people is set in a circle, the sexes alternating. Then they start dancing around to some popular tune holding hands at first. The announcer stops the dance every so often and asks whether particular body parts have been already engaged in the game - to which the dancers answer accordingly. "Have your little heads been engaged yet?" "No-o-o!". They then switch from holding the previous body part to the one just announced and continue dancing. I have never seen it performed but I have not been to many Polish weddings either. It looks silly on paper but it could be funny when one is drunk, happy and lusting for innocent sex.

Apparently "labado" also plays a big role in sport fan cultures. In this case - the speedway fans.

Zielona Góra, Falubaz stadium. The loudest support of the speedway riders comes from the six thousand throats on the grandstand K. - Danc-ing la-ba-do, la-ba-do, we are danc-ing la-ba-do, little waltz, we are fans of Fa-lu-baz, fans, fans, fans, Falubaz KSF! The leader strikes the rhythm. The fans embrace, hold each other's arms and bounce up and down, and then they dance sideways - until the dust flies.

Since the end of April fans are not allowed to dance labado. Because the dance is "vandalic" a new grandstand K may collapse - warn the experts.

To make long story short: the designers did not take into account possible resonant effects caused by low frequency excitation impact forces of 6000 people bouncing in unison two to four times a second. Fans are upset, and some do not perceive any danger. After a lot of political games and finger pointing it was decided to perform a test.

The idea was to let in one thousand fans and to simulate labado on the grandstand K.
The fans refused: - No self-respecting speedway fan will take part in such a shame.

So they organized 400 volunteers: civil servants, security guards hired from the three companies, teachers, colleagues of the city president. They jumped. The president also jumped and danced labado. The grandstand trembled, but resisted. The president was beaming.

Prof. Wilde of Gdańsk University of Technology, one of the best experts in the country [who spent past six years in Japan studying their seismic and vibration protection of buildings] announced preliminary results of the experiment: "The grandstand is being excited into the dangerous resonance. Because of the large amplitude of vibration it is not recommended to dynamically load it (the grandstand) in the form of periodic load, which is particularly generated during the labado dance." Prof Wilde conditionally allows to use only the rows of 1 to 21. The most dangerous are the vibrations of the four highest rows. - No people should be allowed there - he warned.

There is a lot more in the article I quoted - including several videos.

There are several ways to correct the problem, but the general concept is to move the natural frequency of the grandstand away from that 2-4 Hz dangerous excitation zone. One way is to stiffen the structure to at least 7Hz. Apparently the developer substituted the original concrete elements, to be cast in situ, by prefabricated ones - to save on cost and time. This might be the major reason for the current problem they have. - boletus

lowfunk99Threads: 18 Posts: 435 Joined: Jan 7, 08 ♂	Jul 4, 11, 05:53 #2
Those f**kers are rowdy as hell. I stayed about 1/2 mile away and you could hear them loud and clear.

z_dariusThreads: 22 Posts: 5,091 Joined: Oct 18, 07 ♂	Jul 4, 11, 06:47 #3
I lived about 20 minutes walking distance from that stadium. It can get noisy much further away than 1/2 mile. Some interesting German defensive structures in the area. In the ground that is, a system of bunkers connecting quite a few miles under ground. The didn't play much role in WW2 though.

lowfunk99Threads: 18 Posts: 435 Joined: Jan 7, 08 ♂	Edited by: lowfunk99 Jul 4, 11, 15:02 #4
I have walked in the forest and seen one of the bunkers on the biggest hill. Where are the other ones? Where did you live Pan Z?

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Jul 4, 11, 17:34 #5

I lived around Osiedle Morelowa until late 70's.

One bunker was between the the Police headquarters on Ulica Partyzantow and a long, 5 story apt. building, numbers 50's to 60's along the Eastern edge of the settlement. If I remember correctly, that is. They chained the door to the bunker in late 70's. If you stand facing the main entrance to the police headquarters the entrance to that bunker is behind the far right corner of the building. Or if you stand next to Ulica Staffa 17 (I think) and face South, you will be seeing a little hill with a small fenced in area and steps leading downwards. That's the bunker.

The other bunkers were mostly scattered around the stadium in the neighboring forest. Kinda hard to describe the locations. We went by local names of little hills and creeks in the forest. These names are now faded from memory. We stumbled upon some bunkers when either mushroom picking, or just generally looking for trouble as kids. And the trouble did happen sometimes. One of the kids got killed by a landmine of some sort, but not in the bunker. Somewhere in the area though. That was when I was in grade two but I wasn't a part of that scouting trip.

Some bunkers were fairly easy to get into if you were a skinny kid, and we could meander there for what seemed like miles. The bunkers were mostly "plugged" with debris but on occasion we found a little something, like a part of a weapon (never a fully functional one), some bullets, a helmet, some rusted metal signs we could not even read. Using flashlights and candles for backup (batteries didn't last very long then) we would mark our path with chalk so we could find our way back.

Someone told us kids you could reach another entrance, close to the stadium from the one I described above. We tried once and after about 2 hours we did reach what seemed to be like another exit but it was locked so we turned back. We followed all kinds of corridors using a compass and drew a map as we went. According to that map we reached the stadium entrance indeed. But then, I was 10 or 11 at the time so who knows where the hell we went. And we were even scared to tell anybody about it too. These were the times when kids were mostly scared to do anything other than what adults told them to do. They always told us not to go to the bunkers because of risk of rats, snakes and other critters. We never saw any.

I heard from a local historian that those bunkers were a part of an approximately 60x60x60 km triangle of interconnected underground facilities, somewhat similar in their intended function to the Maginot line. According to him, the reason why the system played no role in WW2 was a sheer luck. A couple of Soviet troops, after a few good gulps from a local distillery, got hold of an abandoned German motorbike and unknowingly drove through the front line. Being drunk as they were they didn't realize the gravity of the situation and laughing at the Germans, were just cruising around. Germans reacted with confusion as to why the Soviets show no fear and they assumed that the Soviets fearless behavior must have meant that there is way many more of them around in the immediate vicinity on their side of the front line, so a few radio chats took place and a swift evacuation ensued.

Again, that was a story I heard in late 1970's during one of history classes held by a member of the local historical society of sorts. Therefore no links will be provided. In later years I tried to look for confirmation in other sources that the incident took place indeed, but I couldn't find anything as detailed. The only, albeit circumstantial, evidence available is that the Soviets experienced surprisingly little resistance in the area and that, instead, Germans quickly withdrew behind the Oder/F River, giving away a relatively large area without a lot of hassle. There was some fighting but the damage in the nearby towns wasn't as extensive as in Pomerania or Lower Silesia.

lowfunk99Threads: 18 Posts: 435 Joined: Jan 7, 08 ♂	Jul 4, 11, 23:55 #6
I stayed very near there on Wąska. I wish I knew it was there.

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Jul 5, 11, 17:26 #7

I know where that is, right across the playground from the Primary School #17, kinda a little up on the hill.

Waska was mostly a dirt/gravel road at the time. One street down, away from the school is Wroclawska, that now turns into Lwowska around where Waska is. Soviet troops would take that route through Zielona Gora whenever they needed to move some equipment. The traffic was closed and you could only see hundreds of their military vehicles.

In 1968 I saw both Polish and Soviet forces going to Prague. They must have been going for hours, and they were not going too slow either.

Waska intersects with Sienkiewicza and if you turn left and drive past a set of railway tracks you'll see a furninture factory. At one point that factory made a bulk of IKEA branded stuff. There is a nice old German house right across from the factory's main entrance. That was one of the best libraries in the city. Then it got moved to the big blocky building on Wojska Polskiego.

One of the more interesting places around Morelowa, perhaps in the whole city, is a little early 14th century chapel. It was built by the survivors of one of the epidemics. It's called Kapliczka na Winnicy and it was where I first got in trouble with the RC priests :) Have you seen the little gem?

All that area was the the outskirts of the city, lots of forest and bush around. They started development in late 70's and now the charm is gone.

Yup, that's the area where I grew up and I still know every little corner, except for those that were built after I moved out in late 1970' elsewhere in the city.

lowfunk99Threads: 18 Posts: 435 Joined: Jan 7, 08 ♂	Jul 7, 11, 00:11 #8
I also stayed by the amphitheater on Ptasia. Nice church!

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