Prior to green day performing their set at the “Mad Cool Festival” in Madrid, a Spanish acrobat, Pedro Aunión Monroy, 42, fell 100 feet to his death while performing. Organizers decided for security reasons to carry on the music festival as normal, leading to Green Day getting up on stage late. The band only found out after their set that Monroy had died.

Band and festival organizers criticized for carrying on as normal at ‘Mad Cool’

As reported by the Washington Post, many fans took to social media after the deadly accident to criticize the band for playing and not reacting any way to the deadly accident.

Despite the fact Green Day sent a tweet after their set to say they had just heard the disturbing news, fans couldn’t believe they didn’t know what had happened.

In their tweet, Green Day said they had just got off stage to hear the disturbing news that a “very brave” artist named Pedro had died that night in a tragic accident.

Statement released by Green Day

As the criticism continued, Green Day has now released a statement on their website about the incident. In the statement Billie Joe Armstrong said they understood that many people are wondering why they continued playing following the accident. He again said the band didn’t hear about it until their show was over.

In fact, they had no idea there was an acrobatic performance happening at the festival.

While thousands of people in the crowd had witnessed Monroy’s fall, there was only a short delay before Green Day got up on stage to perform. This fact caused even more criticism against the band and the organizers of the “Mad Cool Festival”.

However the festival organizers, Javier Arnaiz and Farruco Castromán, said they did not inform either the audience or the band about the fatal fall and let the festival continue as normal for “security reasons,” but didn't elaborate on the statement

In Green Day’s statement, Armstrong went on to say festivals like "Mad Cool" are huge and there are many things happening at once, making it impossible to keep track with every performer or artist.

He said the band was in a back stage compound, located around half a mile away from the main festival stage.

Green Day wa scheduled to get up on stage at 11:25 p.m., but 15 minutes before that, local authorities told their tour management to wait before going on stage as there had been some kind of security issue. Armstrong said security issues are a normal thing at any show. He said the fact that they weren’t told the reason for the delay is also quite normal.

Everything seemed normal when Green Day got on stage

Armstrong said when the band went onstage, they didn’t notice anything unusual about the crowd – everything appeared quite normal and the fans enjoyed the show.

However, once they returned to the compound the band was told the shocking news of the acrobat’s death.

He said they were all in total disbelief. Armstrong doesn’t understand why authorities did not tell them about Monroy's accident before they went on stage. He said something like this has never happened in their 30 years of performing live.

Armstrong went on to reiterate that they are not heartless people. If they had known about Monroy’s death prior to going on stage, they most likely would not have played at all.

He concluded by saying that what happened to Monroy is unthinkable. He said again that all members of the band are heartbroken for his family and friends and also for anyone who had witnessed the tragedy.

Slowdive, another band set to play at the "Mad Cool Festival" took to Twitter early on Saturday to say due to the tragic death of Monroy, they felt it was inappropriate to play.

Funeral held on Sunday for Pedro Aunión Monroy

The BBC reports that a funeral was held for Monroy in a Buddhist ceremony on Saturday in Spain, as he and his partner Mike were both Buddhists. Gary Taylor, a friend of Monroy, said a Prince song was played during his funeral.
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