Green Day are addressing their July 7 performance at Madrid, Spain’s Mad Cool Festival following the death of acrobat Pedro Aunión Monroy just minutes before they took the stage.
The Independent reports Monroy was inside a box hanging from a crane when he fell from a height of around 100 feet in front of thousands of spectators at the music festival.
“Mad Cool Festival regrets the terrible accident that the aerial dancer suffered during the second day of the festival,” tweeted event organizers following the incident. “For security reasons, the festival decided to continue with its programming. We send our most sincere condolences to all his family,” they added, while announcing plans to pay tribute to the late acrobat on July 8.
Green Day took the stage to perform their headline set in support of their latest album, “Revolution Radio”, without being informed of the tragic news until after they had completed their show.
“We just got off stage at Mad Cool Festival to disturbing news,” tweeted the band. “A very brave artist named Pedro lost his life tonight in a tragic accident. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends.”
Faced with a social media backlash for performing following the fatality, Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong explained further details about the situation via the band’s own social media sites on Saturday
“Last night at the Mad Cool festival in Spain, there was a horrific accident,” Armstrong began. “An acrobat by the name of Pedro was killed during his performance before Green Day played our show. We are so sad for Pedro and his family and we pray for them in this time of grief. I can’t imagine how much suffering the friends and family are going through.
“Many of you are wondering why we continued to play our show after the accident. Green Day did not hear about the accident until after our show was over. We didn’t even know there was an acrobat performance at all. These festivals are huge. There are so many things happening at the same time it’s impossible to keep up with every performer/artist.”
“We were in a backstage compound about a half mile away from the main festival stage,” the rocker continued. “We were warming up ready to go at 11:25 pm. 15 minutes prior our tour management was told by local authorities to wait to go on stage because there was some sort of security issue. Security issues are a normal occurrence and procedure at any show… we were NOT told why, which is also normal. We waited as we were instructed. Still, we had no clue there was any such accident.
“We were given the ok. The band jumped into vans and drove to the main festival stage. This was to be the last show of our European tour and we were all so excited to play our hearts out one last time. We were on stage at around midnight and played around two and a half hours. Everything seemed normal. the crowd and fans had a good time.”
“We got off stage and drove back to our artist compound. It was there when we were told the shocking news about Pedro,” explained Armstrong. “All of us were in disbelief. I don’t know why the authorities chose not to tell us about the accident before our concert. All we know is what was said after our concert.
“This has never happened in the 30 years Green Day have been performing live. If we had known prior to our performance, we most likely would not have played at all. We are not heartless people. The safety and well-being at any of our concerts absolutely comes first. What happened to Pedro is unthinkable. Once again we are heartbroken for his friends and family, and we are also shocked and heartbroken for anyone that had to witness this tragedy.”
Following the end of the European tour, Green Day now have a three-week break before launching a summer series of dates across North America in Auburn, WA on August 1.
The six-week run will include the band’s first-ever performances at Wrigley Field in Chicago, IL and the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, CA.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends
— Green Day (@GreenDay) July 8, 2017
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