Major festival cancelled due to security reasons, 12 injured

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Slovakia’s largest music festival, Pohoda Festival, has been cancelled after a storm blew over a tent, injuring 12 people.

Due to security reasons, festival organizers announced today that the festival, which was held at Trenčín Airport, would be cut short and asked participants to leave via “special evacuation buses.”

The festival’s lineup included James Blake, Skepta, Royal Blood, Pendulum, Noname, Arlo Parks and Black Pumas.

Performances by Morcheeba and Royal Blood, scheduled for Friday night, did not go ahead after a storm swept through the park and ripped away a tent.

The Slovak Spectator newspaper reported that 12 people out of the 30,000 participants were injured when one of the large tents collapsed on the festival-goers. Eight of them were taken to hospitals in Trenčín and Považská Bystrica with minor head and arm injuries.

According to the outlet, dozens of people were inside the tent when it collapsed, waiting for the music to begin. They were reportedly advised not to stand near the tent poles due to the approaching storm, and were told that the festival was suspended.

Develop

According to reports, many attendees fled the festival after the storm before an official cancellation announcement was made. On Friday evening at 8 p.m., organizers announced that the festival was suspended due to the storms.

Today they released a statement on their website announcing the cancellation of the festival.

“After carefully considering the time constraints to inspect the safety of the festival structures, we have decided that we must cancel Pohoda 2024,” the festival website reads.

“Based on the information available, the inspection of all structures could not be completed within 24 hours, making it impossible to continue with the festival program.

“The safety of our customers is our priority, and we therefore believe that our decision, taken with great regret, will be understood by everyone.

“We hope to be able to provide information soon on the extreme weather conditions that affected our festival and the impact they had on the festival structures.

“All those who have tents in the camping area can spend the night at the festival until tomorrow noon. The centre of the site will remain closed. We will ensure a basic supply of drinks and food in the camping areas.

“The festival car park and caravan park will remain open until 4pm.”

The festival followed the announcement with additional information about the buses, which had “sufficient capacity” to transport anyone wishing to use them outside the festival.

Organizers also said they would send “vans to the tent cities” with “water and baked goods” for festival-goers.

Metro.co.uk has contacted Pohoda festival organisers for comment.

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