Photo: Facebook
Day two of Mad cool festival was beset by tragedy on Friday night as a Spanish acrobat fell to his death during a performance in front of thousands of onlookers. Traumatised witnesses walked out and took to Twitter to criticise organisers and Green Day for their handling of the incident.
“I watched the guy fall and can’t believe no one said anything. I will never return to Mad Cool or Greenday,” Another Spanish fan tweeted the band saying: “I don’t think so, it’s impossible that you didn’t know what had happened, shame on you and the festival’s organisers.”
The thirty minute acrobatic performance was scheduled to run at 22.55 between Alt-J and headline act Greenday. A large crane to the left of the main stage suspended a clear cube dangling 100ft in the air. Tens of thousands of festival goers watched in person and via large screens. As the artist began his performance, onlookers screamed when he dropped below the cube, hung momentarily, and fell to the ground. It has been reported that his harness snapped.
Paramedics gave CPR and support on the scene but the artist was pronounced dead. This was not formally communicated to waiting festival-goers however. Shocked witnesses stood in silence, many waiting for a public announcement, a cancellation of the rest of the night, or some form of presence and leadership from the organisers.
For those who had seen this first hand, it was with disbelief that they watched Green Day come on to headline as normal, a mere 30 minutes later than scheduled. No formal announcement about the accident was made on stage and Green Day did not acknowledge the tragedy at all during their performance. The incident area, front left of the main stage was cordoned off by police and the box continued to hang, a visible reminder of the tragedy. The mood in the crowd was a volatile mix. Many crying and clearly in shock whilst others moshed and partied unaware of what had happened. Green Day’s show was as joy fuelled and energetic as ever.
Despite receiving criticism from fans, it is unclear what and when Green Day were told about the death. Bizarrely, a tweet from the band suggests they only found out about it after their performance. If true, that is a very difficult position for the organisers to have put the band in.
Other musicians performing hours later in the night reported that they first learnt about the event from news sources rather than the festival organisers. In the wake of this tragedy, these musicians were hoping to be given the choice as to whether to perform or not. This did not happen. Understandably,as word spread amongst the crowd, the mood for the rest of the night’s shows was somewhat flat and strange.
The artist, named by family today as Spanish performer Pedro Aunion Monroy, 42, lived in the UK and worked as director of a performing arts company based in Portslade, Brighton.
Festival organisers have since stated that they decided to continue the night as planned due to safety concerns. But what exactly does that mean?
If ending the concert was not an option due to safety concerns, does that mean they were not able to carry out a basic site evacuation? Having been on site, it seemed as great a public safety concern to have party revellers mixed amongst a traumatised crowd.
In the event of a very public death, the silence from the organisers on the night was baffling and poorly thought through. On the ground, those witnesses were a part of the tragedy, and they were not communicated with.
The organiser’s explanation, when taken at face value, implies they were not prepared for emergency protocol and mass crowd handling.
Organisers have since publicly stated that Pedro Monroy will be honoured during the Saturday events. For those attendees and artists who criticised the decision to continue the show and the silence on the night -this may be too little, too late.
Acrobat Monroy was starting his routine 100ft up in the air when his harness snapped (Picture: Kostaroff.com/ Twitter)
We just got off stage at Mad Cool Festival to disturbing news. A very brave artist named Pedro lost his life tonight in a tragic accident
— Green Day (@GreenDay) 8 juillet 2017
