With his performance company, In Fact Aerial Dance, Pedro Aunión Monroy was at the cutting edge of theatrical presentations, combining acting, dancing, acrobatics, harnesses, and bungee cords to create a new kind of entertainment.
“Aerial dance-theatre is a language that brings a unique ‘tempo’ to a performance as a result of constantly shifting perspectives and dramatic movement,” he explained on the company’s website. “The audience is drawn into the performance through its captivating sense of wonder and risk.”
In Fact had presented many productions around the world since it was established in 2001 in Brixton, the rough and diverse neighborhood in south London where Pedro had settled. The company also operated (under the name Ciadehecho—which translates to “In Fact”) in Madrid, Spain, where Pedro was born and was still a popular figure on the cultural scene. Pedro had studied at Madrid’s Royal Conservatory of Dance and since the late 1990s had acted and done stunt work in films—including Cyrano de Bergerac, starring Plácido Domingo—and was a senior choreographer for the 2008 Spanish television reality show Circus.
In 2017 he was forty-two, athletic and handsome, with a trim beard, and he lived outside London in the seaside resort of Brighton. He had a good life there, making ends meet as a massage therapist at the posh Grand Hotel, and had a British boyfriend named Michael Sells. Pedro was popular among the Brits, who got a kick out of his accent; some even called him “Peter.”
Pedro performed across Europe with In Fact and conducted workshops for aspiring aerial dancers. He was invited to return to his hometown in July to perform at a major festival—Mad Cool, Spain’s answer to the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Southern California. Like Coachella, Mad Cool’s inaugural lineup in 2016 had featured a mix of artists and genres: classic rock stars the Who and Neil Young; alternative favorites Jane’s Addiction, the Prodigy, and Garbage; and contemporary acts like Flume and the Kills. The several outdoor stages also featured Spanish bands and local artists. The three-day lineup in 2017 was equally impressive. The first day was to be headlined by the Foo Fighters, the last by Kings of Leon. On the middle day, Friday, July 7, the main act was Green Day, the punk rock band turned Broadway musical stars.
After a day of music that included sets by Spoon, Rancid, Ryan Adams, and many others, Pedro had a premier spot on the main stage, following the British rockers alt-J and immediately before the entrance of Green Day. Of course, Pedro would actually be performing above the stage. He’d dance in the sky in an illuminated cage as it was hoisted a hundred feet in the air by a crane. His image would be projected on the big screen onstage, so everyone in the audience could get a close look.
On Thursday, the day the festival opened with the Foo Fighters, Pedro logged on to Facebook and tagged Michael Sells on a treated photo of the couple together. He wrote, “I can’t wait to see my beautiful boyfriend. Love, come to my arms!!!!!” It would be his last Facebook post.
By the time alt-J left the stage just before 11:00 PM on Friday night, there were more than thirty-five thousand people waiting for Green Day. The stage went dark, and the opening chords of Prince’s “Purple Rain” rang from the sound system.
This was Pedro’s moment, a tribute to the rock idol and musical genius who’d died unexpectedly and tragically in April 2016. All eyes were on Pedro inside the white box, with clear sidewalls but without a floor, as it rose from the stage. Prince’s voice rang from the loudspeakers. Heads craned to see Pedro moving gracefully as he danced and spun in 360-degree turns. Others watched his breathtaking movements on the big screen. Many held up cell phones to record the image of the figure inside the illuminated cube. Though he was suspended by various straps and harnesses, he seemed to be floating in midair.
Pedro was lifted a hundred feet into the air. The crowd sang along with the recording of Prince:
Purple rain, purple rain
I only wanted to see you bathing in the purple rain
I never wanted to be your weekend lover—
At that moment, Pedro dropped like a stone.
His harness had snapped. The figure inside the cube was now a man plummeting a hundred feet to the hard earth. Thousands of people—the ones looking up at the box—saw him fall with their own eyes: feet first, and extending his arms at the last second, as if to prepare for a landing on his feet. Others watched the shocking image flash by on the big screen, when, even more vividly, Pedro plunged toward and past the camera trained on him from below. Still others would, moments later, watch again what they thought they’d seen while recording cell phone videos.
Many people screamed. Others cried or were sickened. Among those in the crowd was Michael Sells, watching his partner perform for the very first time.
The big screen showed images of the aftermath at the side of the stage, including the paramedics gathered around the broken aerial dancer. Anyone who’d assumed the fall had been part of the show, or that a dummy had been dropped, could see that wasn’t the case. The medical team went through all the motions of trying to save a life for half an hour, before giving up. Pedro Aunión Monroy was dead.
Meanwhile, as thousands of fans waited in the humid field, festival organizers debated what to do. There was no announcement, but a decision was made: at least for security reasons, to prevent any panic or disruption, the show would go on.
Green Day took the stage about forty-five minutes late and performed their show, the last of their European tour. There was no mention of Pedro. A sense of disgust rippled through the audience. Even before their final encores, social media was already aflame with outrage that these American idiots would perform as usual after their opening act had died onstage.
Shortly after the show, the band 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
Many people reacted angrily. One post included the accusation “You lie!”
The next day, the Green Day organization issued a long statement in the name of the band’s forty-five-year-old frontman, Billie Joe Armstrong. The statement claimed that members of Green Day were in an artists’ backstage compound a half mile away from the stage when the tragedy occurred. Armstrong wrote that the band was warming up and ready to hit the stage at 11:25 PM but fifteen minutes before showtime was “told by local authorities to wait to go on stage because there was some sort of security issue. . . . We had no clue there was any such accident.” The band took the stage around midnight, played two and a half hours and, he wrote, “everything seemed normal.” It was only after the show, he insisted, that the band was informed of what happened to Pedro:
All of us were in disbelief. I don’t know why the authorities chose not to tell us about the accident before our concert. . . . 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. We are also shocked and heartbroken for anyone that had to witness this tragedy.
Pedro’s sister announced his death on Facebook. Estefi Chaje wrote that she and her family were devastated. The post also included this line: “Estaba haciendo lo que más le gustaba, un espectáculo en el mad cool.”
“He was doing what he loved, performing in Mad Cool.”