Extremadura in the Medusa: “Everyone was running, screaming and there were people lying on the ground”

Manuel Parra and Cecilia Mesa, two 20-year-olds from Badajoz who attended the Medusa Festival in Cullera (Valencia) last week, narrate how they experienced the thermal blowout that claimed the life of a young man. These people from Extremadura felt first-hand the fear experienced when part of the Symphony stage, located at the beginning of the main door, collapsed. This mishap left thousands of festivalgoers running, screaming and fleeing. Once they reached the camping area, they saw tents and awnings flying in the middle of the storm unleashed by the thermal blowout.

The two young men tell TODAY that they feared for their lives. Cecilia had to stay for several days in the Cullera pavilion, where she was given food and a mat to be able to take refuge until her bus arrived.

The young woman attended a festival for the first time accompanied by her aunt: «It was brutal, we were in a quiet place enjoying music and suddenly I saw a giant structure fall on top of many people. Everybody ran away.” At that time the young woman did not know how to react: «You go blank, until suddenly you have to do something and, that is when you realize that it has been messed up in a moment».

At the time of the mishap, Cecilia and her aunt were in the concert area, right on the first stage. The woman from Badajoz was afraid and she came to think that these were the last moments of her life: «At the beginning we were very good, we were impressed by the atmosphere at the festival». When the first artist, Steve Aoki, finished, they moved to the Symphony stage, where the event took place.

They were in the VIP area sitting on the stairs and they felt a few drops fall on them, immediately they looked and there was no one. However, at the front, the large entrance collapsed among the festival-goers: “We are left white.” In the first burst everything fell and they ran away.

“We had to take refuge in booths, until the security agents arrived and the evacuation began,” at which point the festival-goers organized themselves and managed to get out; “If people had huddled together, they would have formed a ball and no one would have come out.” The fear continued and meanwhile “everyone was running, screaming, with people lying on the ground,” says Cecilia.

The festival offered a camping pavilion and by the time they arrived at the campsite the fences had been blown, the awnings had been ripped off the ground and the tents were scattered elsewhere.

The young people who came by bus could not return home until Monday, so they had to stay in the Cullera municipal pavilion. The festival offered mats, sweets, hamburgers, pizzas, sandwiches, as well as showers.

Manuel went to the festival with his friends and stayed at the festival campsite. When what happened happened, Manuel was in the camping area, since they had left the concerts ten minutes before what happened.

“When we were in the camping area, the wind started to blow and the tents started to fly.” Manuel says that he tried to hold her together with her group of friends, while they helped the rest of the festivalgoers.

In his case, he assures that he received no help from the festival: “The campsite did not offer any help, we had to help each other.” The next morning, the festival organization cleared out the entire campsite and provided accommodation in the pavilion.

«I felt fear, it was a situation that I had never experienced, it was a very strong wind, which did not even let you move». This is how Manuel relates the seriousness of what happened. During the mishap: “It was not so much the duration of the collapse as the force.”

Manuel assures that for a time going to festivals will not be part of his vacation plans.

So far, young people have not received a response about the return of tickets purchased for this festival. The organization said in a statement that the accident was due to an “unpredictable weather phenomenon.”