Green Day defends playing set after festival death, saying 'we are not heartless people'

When Green Day took the stage at the Madrid festival on Friday, the band were unaware that roughly thirty minutes prior, thousands of festivalgoers had watched an aerial dancer by the name of Pedro Aunion Monroy plummet a hundred feet to the ground in a stunt gone horribly wrong.

In a statement released on Green Day's website and Billie Joe Armstrong's Instagram, the singer says the authorities at the festival postponed their set by a few minutes "because there was some sort of security issue." Armstrong added that this was normal occurrence.

Eventually they were given the go-ahead and driven about a half-mile from their backstage area to the main stage. Still unaware of the tragedy, Green Day performed their set.

"Everything seemed normal. The crowd and fans had a good time," says Armstrong.

It wasn't until Green Day left the stage that they learned of Pedro's death. Armstrong says the band were in disbelief.

"This has never happened in the 30 years Green Day have been performing live. If we had known prior to our performance we most likely would not have played at all."

"We are not heartless people," adds Armstrong.

Last night at the Mad Cool festival in Spain there was a horrific accident. An acrobat by the name of Pedro was killed during his performance before Green Day played our show. We are so sad for Pedro and his family and we pray for them in this time of grief. I can't imagine how much suffering the friends and family are going through. Many of you are wondering why we continued to play our show after the accident. Green Day did not hear about the accident until after our show was over. We didn't even know there was an acrobat performance at all. these festivals are huge. There are so many things happening at the same time it's impossible to keep up with every performer/artist.. We were in a back stage compound about a half mile away from the main festival stage. We were warming up ready to go at 11:25 pm. 15 minutes prior our tour management was told by local authorities to wait to go on stage because there was some sort of security issue. Security issues are a normal occurrence and procedure at any show.. we were NOT told why which is also normal. we waited as we were instructed. Still, We had no clue there was any such accident. We were given the ok. The band jumped into vans and drove to the main festival stage. This was to be the last show of our European tour and we were all so excited to play our hearts out one last time. We were on stage at around midnight and played around two and a half hours. Everything seemed normal. the crowd and fans had a good time. We got off stage and drove back to our artist compound. It was there when we were told the shocking news about 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. All we know is what was said after our concert. This has never happened in the 30 years Green Day have been performing live. 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.

A post shared by Billie Joe Armstrong (@billiejoearmstrong) on Jul 8, 2017 at 5:07pm PDT

The Mad Cool Festival organisers also issued a statement, saying "the decision to not stop the festival immediately was made between the state and local security forces, as well as our security management."

"It was officially deemed unsafe to have a large mass of people moving all at once, with the possibility of violent reactions, due to a sudden cancellation of an event of 45,000 people."

Green Day were headlining the festival in the final performance of their European tour, during which they had made a stop at the Royal Hospital Kilmainham in Dublin.