Slovakia’s Pohoda Festival has been cancelled halfway through after one of the tent stages collapsed. 29 people were injured as a result of the accident, forcing the festival to close its doors early.

Nearly 30,000 people attended the festival, which is held in the north of Slovakia, right next to the new Trenčín airport.

The Slovak Spectator has reported on the incident, claiming that the tent collapsed due to strong winds and a severe storm, which ruined the structure’s integrity. As a result, Aréna Slovenskej sporitel’ne fell while dozens of festival goers were still inside, and many people were subsequently left hurt.

The chief physician at the festival, Jaroslav Vidan, confirmed the number of people being injured as 29. He also described 28 of those injuries as being “minor”. He said, “Twenty-eight injuries were minor, mostly lacerations, and one injury was of moderate severity, involving a hip fracture.” In a public statement, he confirmed that all of the injured parties had been taken to the hospital to be assessed appropriately.

The festival’s cancellation was confirmed at midday on July 12th. Organisers took to social media and wrote, “Based on the available information, the inspection of all structures could not be completed sooner than within 24 hours, which makes it impossible to continue the festival programme.” They added, “After carefully considering the time required to inspect the safety of festival structures, we have decided that we must end Pohoda 2024.”

There were still a number of acts set to play at the festival, including Nia Archives, Black Pumas, LA Priest, Mount Kimbie and Ezra Collective, leaving fans of these artists deeply disappointed.

Other festival appearances had to be cancelled before the event was officially called off. Royal Blood and Morcheeba had to postpone their sets for safety reasons, as the festival was suspended at 20:00 before the decision to shut the whole thing down completely was made. Festival goers have also been told to stay away from tent poles because of the continued threat of lightning; however, many people started seeking shelter from the storm within tents.

The tent’s sponsors, Slonská sporitel’ňa, have opted to pay for extra buses to take people off-site and to safety. Many artists have also agreed to waive the pay they were expecting to help the organisers recover financially from the event.

The Slovakian police have also officially confirmed that they will launch a criminal investigation into the tent’s collapse to see whether the incident was unavoidable or the result of somebody’s negligence.

This is a developing story; further updates about the ongoing investigation will follow.

[Far Out – original article]

[Photo – Far Out]