A 20-year-old Idaho woman is suing the company that supplies stadium seating at Folsom Field, alleging she was impaled on an exposed metal pole after concertgoers removed seat cushions during a packed John Summit show in Boulder last October. Isabella Hayward says she lost her footing while standing on a bleacher and fell onto the pole, which lodged in her abdomen and exposed her intestines.
Hayward filed the complaint on August 13 in Denver County District Court against Learfield Amplify Seating, LLC, according to The Denver Post. The lawsuit alleges the company was negligent and reckless in failing to remove or inspect the seating hardware ahead of the concert, which drew more than 40,000 fans to the CU Boulder stadium for what was promoted at the time as the largest headlining show of the electronic dance music DJ's career, according to Party Guru Productions.
According to the complaint, Learfield Amplify is responsible for installing, uninstalling, and replacing the cushioned stadium seats it rents to CU football fans throughout the season. When concertgoers removed the back cushions from some of those seats during the October 18, 2025 show, the underlying metal poles were left exposed. Hayward pulled herself off the pole after being impaled, the complaint states, and was taken to a Boulder hospital, where she underwent emergency surgery.
A Concert Environment Built for Standing, Dancing and Jumping
Hayward's attorneys argue that Learfield should have anticipated and removed the exposed poles given the nature of the event. The complaint alleges the seating was fundamentally incompatible with the foreseeable environment of an EDM concert, where fans are expected to stand, dance, and jump rather than remain seated as they would during a football game. That mismatch between football-season seating hardware and a high-energy concert crowd sits at the center of the legal claim.
Nearly ten months after the concert, Hayward's injuries still require treatment, per the complaint. Her attorney, Elizabeth Hart, said the legal team is seeking accountability and justice for Hayward, calling what happened to her an unnecessary tragedy. The complaint requests both economic and non-economic damages in an unspecified amount. Learfield Amplify Seating had not provided comment before the Post's report was published.
Who Runs Folsom Field's Seats and Concerts
Learfield Amplify functions as a dedicated ticket, seating, and development division of Learfield, managing semi-permanent seatback rental operations at more than 100 collegiate and professional sports venues nationwide, according to Iowa Hawkeyes Athletics. The seatback products use patented mounting brackets and clamp mechanisms designed to lock onto bleacher benches, per records filed with the U.S. Patent Office, and are installed and removed as semi-permanent fixtures for the sports season. Separately, Learfield's Buffalo Sports Properties division serves as the exclusive multimedia rights holder and commercial manager for CU Boulder Athletics, generating revenue from game-day seat rentals, sponsorships, and concert-event hosting at Folsom Field.
Folsom Field opened in 1924 on the CU Boulder campus and seats more than 53,000, and it has increasingly hosted major concerts under a multi-year stadium hosting agreement with promoter AEG Presents, according to Denver Westword. On the night of the concert, temperatures inside the stadium dropped to 40 degrees as thousands of general-admission fans packed the bleachers before flooding down to the floor area, Party Guru Productions reported.
What Colorado Law Could Mean for Damages
Under the Colorado Premises Liability Act, ticket holders at venues like Folsom Field are generally classified as legal invitees, meaning property possessors and managers must exercise reasonable care regarding dangerous conditions they knew about or should have discovered. Colorado House Bill 24-1472 raised the state's cap on non-economic damages, such as pain and suffering, to $1.5 million for personal injury lawsuits filed on or after January 1, 2025. However, that cap does not apply to claims involving permanent physical impairment or disfigurement under Colorado Revised Statutes § 13-21-102.5(5), a provision that could bear on Hayward's case given the reported abdominal and intestinal injuries.
It remains unclear how safety responsibilities for the stadium seating were divided among the University of Colorado, event promoter AEG Presents, and Learfield Amplify as the contracted seating vendor. The lawsuit names only Learfield Amplify Seating, LLC as a defendant, and the company had not responded publicly to the allegations as of the Post's report.
