Fail theatre light wiring

Got any room in there to plug in my hair dryer?

From the darkest corner of a control room we find this:  

All these extension cords on average were 35 to 50ft long in this spagetti monster mess from hell going out to power we figured over 30,000 cumulative watts of theatre lights.

 
 
 

Frayed cords taped together, corroded and loose plugs ends.

Overloaded power strips plugged into dimmer packs. Nice.

No time to wire a new pigtail? Just splice together w/blue painters masking tape & cross your fingers I guess.

Here's some of the lines go through the brick wall and into the attic of the main auditorium.

After we powered the dimmers up it came to no surprise that at least 10 of the cords were hot to the touch within minutes and my hair was beginning to bristle.

We unplugged it all, stripped it down, called in an electrician to hardwire everything. Expensive as hell? Yes?

They were lucky... it could have cost them more than money. Theaters are notorious for burning down.