Gay acrobat who fell to his death at Green Day gig left boyfriend heartbreaking message the day before
By Will Stroude
An acrobat who fell to his death at a music festival in Madrid shortly before US rock band Green Day took to the stage had left his partner a heartbreaking message on social media less than a day before.
Pedro Aunión Monroy wrote on Facebook that he “couldn’t wait” to be reunited with his “beautiful” boyfriend Michael Sells just hours before he plunged 30m to his death from an aerial cage at MadridCool festival on Friday (July 7).
42-year-old Pedro, who lived in Brighton, was thought to have been wearing a harness as the box was suspended from a crane between sets by alt-J and Green Day.
Paramedics called to the scene of the accident spent 30 minutes trying to revive the special aerial dancer following the horror fall, which occurred in front of a crowd 35,000 people.
It is unclear what caused the accident at this stage.
A Buddhist funeral ceremony was was held in Spain on Saturday following a Catholic cremation service.
Friend Mike Taylor told BBC News: “Pedro and his partner Mike are both Buddhists and [Mike] said afterwards it was a very powerful experience.”
Green Day were not informed of the accident before their set at MadridCool on Friday, which went ahead as planned.
After their gig they tweeted: “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.
“Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends.”
Festival directors directors Javier Arnaiz and Farruco Castromán said they did not initially inform the audience or the bands the fall was fatal because of “security reasons”.
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