The Moment Music Stood Still’ – Exhibition on October 7 Nova Festival terror attack opens in London

An exhibition commemorating the October 7 terror attack at the Nova Music Festival in Israel has opened in London.

On October 7, 2023, more than 400 people were killed and many more were wounded at the open-air festival in southern Israel in a terrorist attack initiated by Hamas. Over 3000 people were in attendance at the event, which was held on a Jewish holiday weekend. 44 people were also kidnapped and taken hostage.

The new exhibition, titled ‘06:29AM – The Moment Music Stood Still’, opened in East London on May 20 for a six-week run. It recreates the festival site, powerfully evoking the aftermath of the attacks using the original staging, as well as vehicles and personal belongings recovered from the scene.

It has already been held in 10 cities worldwide and has drawn over 600,000 visitors. See more information here.

Despite decades of conflict, the October 7 attacks were the deadliest in Israel’s history and triggered a dramatic escalation in the conflict between Israel and Palestine, with Gaza health authorities reporting that more than 72,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed since.

The Nova Festival was the Israeli edition of the Universo Paralello, a trance festival that began 23 years earlier in Brazil. Rex Gaster, an artist manager who had multiple acts scheduled to play, described the scene in the days following the attacks.

“Around 6:30 in the morning we started hearing explosions,” he said. “We went out of the backstage and we saw a full bombardment everywhere. It was hundreds of rockets and mortars flying from everywhere and explosions all around us.”

He also stated that security advised all attendees to get down to the floor and put their hands above their heads for protection, but after five or 10 minutes informed everyone to “get in your cars and go”.

“People were hiding in ditches, hiding in bushes, hiding in the woods, hiding wherever you can think of,” said Gaster. “We were getting horrible messages from friends saying, ‘Please help us, they are shooting people next to us.’”

Festival organisers described it as an “unspeakable tragedy”, writing: “This is the epitome of pure and unbridled evil, the horrifying and senseless murder of countless innocent angels, whose only ‘crime’ was being Jewish and living in Israel.

“It’s no wonder that these agents of darkness targets this joyous gathering of children of light, for their sole and singular purpose is to bring darkness upon the world. But we won’t let them do that!”

British musician Jake Marlowe, the former bassist of hardcore band Desolated, was among those killed, having been working security at the event.

In the light of what’s happened in Israel and Gaza, a song about non-violence seems somewhat ridiculous, even laughable, but our prayers have always been for peace and for non-violence…

But our hearts and our anger, you know where that’s pointed. So sing with us… and those… pic.twitter.com/S1zfCMNtzz

— U2 (@U2) October 9, 2023

Bono was among those to pay tribute to those lost at the event, saying during a U2 show at the Las Vegas Sphere: “Sing for our brothers and sisters. Who they themselves were singing at the Supernova Sukkot festival in Israel. We sing for those. Our people, our kind of people. Music people. Playful, experimental people. Our kind of people. We sing for them.”

“In the light of what’s happened in Israel and Gaza, a song about non-violence seems somewhat ridiculous, even laughable, but our prayers have always been for peace and for non-violence.

“But our hearts and our anger, you know where that’s pointed. So sing with us… and those beautiful kids at that music festival. Early morning, October 7, the sun is rising in the desert sky. Stars of David, they took your life but they could not take your pride.”