Three Women Dead After Crowd Crush at Steve Aoki’s Concert in Madrid
Three women died and several others were injured following a crowd crush at a Halloween concert featuring Steve Aoki in Madrid, Spain, in the early hours of November 1, 2012. The event, called Thriller Music Park, was held at the Madrid Arena.
Around 4 A.M. about 50 medical personnel were called to the club in Madrid last night at Steve Aoki’s concert. 2 of the ladies were unconscious and in cardiac arrest when the medics arrived and five people were in distress due to the incidents. It’s likely that these three women fell during the crowded concert and were crushed due to an overcrowded “passage of terror” which is located on a lower floor of the building which is connected to the main floor via a stairway. The two victims were declared dead after 30 minutes of resuscitation and the third died shortly after arriving at the hospital.
According to contemporaneous reporting from outlets including Fact Magazine and Your EDM, eyewitnesses described a bottleneck at the venue’s exits, with only one exit reportedly open at the time, and some reports at the time cited a flare being set off inside the venue as a contributing factor to the panic that followed. Spanish authorities opened an investigation into the incident in its aftermath.
Steve Aoki addressed the tragedy directly following the incident. In a statement, he said the safety of his fans has always been his top priority, and he canceled a scheduled performance in Bilbao that same night out of respect for those who lost their lives and those who were injured. He also extended his condolences to the victims and their families.
Reports at the time noted the tragedy came during a period of heightened scrutiny around crowd safety at large dance music events, following other high-profile incidents at electronic music shows earlier that year. Local authorities in Madrid faced questions in the aftermath about venue capacity and exit procedures at the Madrid Arena.
This is very sad News for all involved and in no way should this ever happen at a concert where you go to enjoy yourself.
Editor’s note: this post has been expanded with additional attributed context from contemporaneous news coverage of the tragedy. The original November 2012 reporting and language are preserved above unchanged. Our thoughts remain with the victims and their families.
