Artist Manager's Story About Bad Dreams Attacks At The Israeli Festival

Illustration of Parallo Universo Festival (Instagram @parallouniverso)

JAKARTA - Rax Gaster an artist manager who has many schedules to perform at the Parallo Universo festival in Reim, Israel depicts a scene of chaos when an attack occurs.

The electronic music festival, located near the Gaza Strip, witnessed at least 260 people killed and others kidnapped when the attack was launched by Hamas on Saturday, October 7 yesterday.

In his memory that night, he described the incident as a "bad dream".

According to a report shared by Billboard, Gaster appeared at the festival site at around 05.30, and the party will last until 17.00 that night. About an hour after he arrived, evening arrived, when Hamas rockets and missiles launched from the Gaza Strip landed at the site.

"At around 06.30 am we started hearing explosions," he said. "We got off the back of the stage and saw full bombings everywhere. Hundreds of rockets and mortars were flying from everywhere and there was an explosion around us."

He also stated that security forces advised all participants to get on the floor and put their hands on their heads for protection, but after five or 10 minutes, told everyone to get into your car and go.

"When the police said 'go now', I ran away," he added. 'I'm not waiting, because we knew it was a rocket attack. You have to act fast.'

The Universo Parallo Festival first started nearly 20 years ago, and an event in Israel called Supernova Sukkot Gathering was taken from the name of Jewish holiday and hosted a series of electronics artists.

While fleeing the event, Gaster told Billboard that he and three other people could get to the car quickly as they were parked nearby, and start driving very quickly, stopping for nothing, even when the missile [falls].

"Naluri I told me not to stop looking for protection, enough driving... We drove so fast that we didn't even know what was going on," he continued, adding that he was trying to make sure the artists he worked with were also in the vehicle to escape the disaster location.

When he and the others arrived at a villa rented by the production team about 30 kilometers away, he added that they began receiving text messages and phone calls informing them that, minutes after they drove from that location, Hamas fighters arrived carrying machine guns with RPGs, with grenades, and slaughtering anyone they could.

Gaster and the people he was with later turned the villa into a command center, according to Billboard, and started contacting IDFs, other Israeli security services, and all our friends we know personally who have connections that can get there.

So far, he continued, they received messages from friends and colleagues who were still at the scene, who reported that the attackers opened fire on festival participants in the car as they tried to escape.

As of Sunday, October 8, Israel's rescue service Zaka reported at least 260 bodies at the site.

"People are hiding in ditches, hiding in bushes, hiding in the forest, hiding wherever you can think of," Gaster said. We got a terrible message from friends who said, 'Please help us, they shot the people next to us.'

He added that the IDF and special forces took several hours to arrive at the location, although security at the event tried to help the participants. He also said he and the team at the villa were sent locations from various participants and they sent the location to their owners, who then came down to help those stranded.

Universo Parallo was originally not meant to be held on the Re'im website, and organizers moved it to this site just two days before it started after the original site in southern Israel failed.

Many friends are still missing, and we still don't know where they are, Gaster said, while estimating there are still around 600-700 people missing at the party.

We are a peaceful community, we are a music community, we do it to create fun. We just want to dance and have fun and enjoy music together, and it turns into a nightmare."