Participants and audience members on one of South Street’s busiest competition days had to seek shelter after water gushed through the ceiling in the green room and backstage areas of the Lydiard Street theatre.

Guttering around the historic building failed to cope with the sudden downpour, causing the ceiling to leak in the main marshalling area. About 1000 people, including theatre staff, South Street competitors and audience members were forced to seek shelter until the storm had passed.

Calisthenics sessions, including the prestigious senior championship event, were cancelled and moved to the Wendouree Performing Arts Centre yesterday.

Today’s South Street sessions will be held in Founders Hall at the University of Ballarat, Mount Helen campus.

Her Majesty’s Theatre manager Graeme Russell said the Saturday afternoon session, one of the busiest on South Street’s calendar, was cancelled after water began seeping into light fittings in the green room.

“We had a full audience and they all had to be evacuated. There was no panic and it was done in a very orderly fashion. We decided to evacuate the audience and participants for occupational health and safety reasons ... no-one was in danger,” he said.

During the storm, the crowd was marshalled to a safe area of the building. “It was still hailing quite heavily outside, so the people remained in the building until the storm had subsided. It would have been too dangerous for them to wait outside,” Mr Russell said.

“Once it was safe to have a look around, we realised the session couldn’t continue.”

Using buckets, bins and towels, theatre staff immediately began the mopping up process.

Specialised contractors were called in yesterday and assessments of the damage to the historic building are expected to continue today and Mr Russell confirmed some of the carpets would need to be removed and replaced.

South Street organisers are hopeful sessions will return to Her Majesty’s Theatre tomorrow.

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