British-based acrobat dies after falling 100ft from suspended cage at Mad Cool Festival in Spain

SPANISH media have named the performing acrobat who plunged 100ft from a suspended cage to his death on the second day of Spain’s Mad Cool Festival in Madrid as 42-year-old Spaniard Pedro Aunion Monroy.

The terrifying accident happened in front of thousands of concert goers moments before headline act Green Day was set to take the stage.

Shocking videos posted on YouTube showed the moment when the harness around his waist somehow snapped and he plunged to the ground. 

Police and rescue workers immediately rushed  to attend to the acrobat dancer, but he was later confirmed dead as a result of his injuries.

Mr Monroy was a highly-experienced dancer and acrobat who also owned a sports massage and acupuncture therapy studio in Brighton. He was also director of In Fact performing arts company based in Brighton, which performed under the name Ciadehecho in Spain.

The festival was delayed for about 30 minutes, but Mad Cool organisers decided to continue with the scheduled performances. The decision angered many concertgoers who took to social media to slam the festival and Green Day for performing after the tragic accident.

In a statement issued later the organisers said, “Mad Cool Festival regrets the terrible accident that the aerial dancer suffered during the second day of the festival. For security reasons, the festival decided to continue with its programming.

“We send our most sincere condolences to all his family. Tomorrow we will render a heartfelt tribute to the artist.”

And on Twitter, Green Day told fans that they were unaware of what happened until after they finished performing.

“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,” the band wrote.

“Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends.”

The band Slowdive was also scheduled to perform Friday night but said on Twitter  that because of what happened they were cancelling their performance.

The cause of the accident is being investigated.