Six months after hundreds of concertgoers were killed at Nova Music Festival, remnants left behind are on display in New York City as part of an immersive exhibition titled The Nova Music Festival Exhibition: October 7th 06:29AM. Billboard News interviewed a few survivors at the exhibit before its opening.
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00:00 This could have been any festival in the world.
00:02 And there's been so much going on there that people don't understand what happened here.
00:06 We want to show the world that we are strong and we will dance again.
00:18 Music is my life. Music is everything for me.
00:27 I was at the NOVA Festival on October 7th.
00:30 It was Friday night. I went with some friends to the NOVA Festival in Israel.
00:38 It was a holiday for us. And we went to celebrate.
00:42 Celebrate life, celebrate music.
00:44 I went to Israel on vacation and it was going to be my first nature party.
00:51 So I went with my family members. We were a group of seven.
00:54 And we had the best night ever. Everyone was so friendly with one another.
01:00 Coming up to you, just talking to you like we all knew each other.
01:04 But really we didn't. And the music was wonderful and spectacular.
01:08 Me and three friends arrived at the festival around 1am.
01:16 At around 3 we decided to take a rest at our campsite which is right by the dance floor.
01:22 You can still hear the music. And we decided to rest and wake up for the sunrise set.
01:27 Which is supposed to be the best part of the festival.
01:29 And instead of waking up to the sound of the sunrise set music, we woke up to the sound of rockets.
01:35 Thousands of rockets above our heads. Suddenly they turned up the music.
01:42 And we started shouting "Tseva Adom, Tseva Adom" which means "Red Larts".
01:49 We are used to it, Israelis. You need to lay on the ground with your hands above your head.
01:55 I want people to try to imagine rockets intercepting over people's heads at Coachella in LA.
02:04 And them reacting in such a calm manner.
02:15 Unfortunately for Israelis this is their reality. This is something they go through on a semi-regular basis.
02:21 If Israelis were to stop everything they were doing every time a few rockets were intercepted over their heads,
02:26 they simply wouldn't get anything done.
02:28 As one of the producers our first action was to make sure everyone leaves the perimeter
02:42 and goes safe to the car. I was talking to my wife, she was at home.
02:49 She didn't come to the festival with me because she was nine months pregnant at that day.
02:54 And then the festival security shut off the music and asked everyone to please pack up their things and evacuate to their cars.
03:00 My uncle said we need to find a bomb shelter. So we got there.
03:05 This bomb shelter is by a bus stop. It's about five feet by eight feet.
03:12 Made to withhold at least eight people. And we were about 40 people inside this box.
03:18 We got into the car. Three thousand people that are trying to escape. So traffic everywhere.
03:25 And then suddenly they start yelling at all of us to pull our cars over to the side of the dirt road and get out and start running.
03:33 And that's when we heard the first gunshots.
03:35 I left the car on the road and started running in the field.
03:40 A Bedouin man, he came to the bomb shelter and he went up to my uncle.
03:46 And he started telling him that there's going to be a terrorist attack and that we need to be careful.
03:52 And then what sounded like a thousand bullets and automatic guns started to go off into the hallway of the bomb shelter.
04:00 People were running in every direction. It was complete chaos.
04:06 And nobody knew what direction to run to. Nobody knew what direction was the direction of safety.
04:11 And at a certain point, about 20 minutes into running, we suddenly saw dozens of other people from the festival running in our direction.
04:20 And then we realized that they're being pursued. They're being chased after. They're being shot at.
04:25 And we realized that we're not only running from terrorists behind us, but we're also running towards other terrorists.
04:31 200 people running towards us, back to the festival, and the terrorists just shooting everyone in the crowd.
04:41 And we see people running and falling down. And the bullets hit everywhere next to us.
04:46 I was surrounded and they shot the people that were in front of me.
04:53 Just terrible. Like, it's really hard to imagine.
04:58 So I couldn't breathe and I was just thinking to myself, all the people behind me, you can hear them stop screaming and you understand what's going on.
05:12 I was afraid. I was alone. Couldn't find my friends. I was thinking of my family.
05:21 I didn't want to... I didn't want them to find me there, dying in the field.
05:31 The Hamas terrorists stood in the doorway of the bomb shelter and started to shoot more of us.
05:44 When I looked at my uncle to see if he was okay, they threw in a hand grenade and he just jumped on the grenade.
05:52 And he took the explosion.
05:58 But that was just the beginning.
06:07 For eight hours, every 20 minutes they came by and they would throw grenades and molotov cocktails.
06:14 And every time the molotov cocktail was thrown in, it wouldn't explode because we were a sea of bodies in the bomb shelter.
06:21 So there was no floor for it to shatter.
06:23 So we had to hide under bodies, dead bodies, to shield ourselves from the grenades. And that's what really kept us alive.
06:34 I didn't want the terrorists to kidnap me, so I was basically motivating myself to keep running.
06:41 And I saw in front of me on the horizon a bunch of orange trees.
06:47 And this scarf was on me. And I used this scarf for camouflage. I put it on me.
06:55 I was looking for the thickest tree. I got inside. I was all full of scratches.
07:01 And the terrorists were getting closer. And they couldn't see me, so I thought it would be better to stay there.
07:09 About four hours into running now, it's around 11 o'clock at this point, and we passed by this small tree.
07:20 And there weren't many trees around us. There wasn't much place to get shade from the sun.
07:25 And we hadn't heard shooting in a few minutes, so we saw a group of other kids sitting under this tree.
07:31 And we decided to sit with them and kind of get some shade and take a rest.
07:36 And we're sitting under this tree, and we're all looking at each other confused, and we're all talking.
07:40 Nobody's really fully taken in what's happened to us.
07:45 A few hours ago, we were dancing at a festival. Now we're running from terrorists.
07:49 And suddenly, this white pickup truck, which seemed to come out of nowhere, starts driving towards us.
07:56 And all of our automatic reactions was, "This is a terrorist coming to kill us."
08:00 Because we all knew that this was the kind of car that the Hamas terrorists were driving.
08:05 And everyone's sitting under the tree. I remember we all kind of half got up and contemplated running for our lives.
08:12 And then simultaneously, we all kind of realized, like, we have nowhere to run to.
08:17 Like, if this is a terrorist, he's in a car, he has a gun, and we're on foot. Where are we going to run to?
08:23 And we all kind of just sat down and accepted our fate.
08:27 And we all were kind of just like smiling and nodding at each other as if to say goodbye.
08:32 It was nice knowing you and kind of taking in that this is the end.
08:37 It was oddly kind of a very peaceful moment.
08:42 And as the car got closer, we realized that it wasn't a terrorist.
08:47 And it was a man from the town of Petitge, which is the town that we were told to run towards to safety.
08:54 And he left the safety of his hometown and he drove towards all this chaos, risking his own life to save the lives of innocent people he didn't even know.
09:08 When I was running in the field, my dad decided that if he's not coming to take me now, he'll need to take me out of Gaza.
09:17 So he came, and I felt relief.
09:22 When I got in here, I saw my friends on the wall here.
09:36 It's just unbelievable that I'm here after six months alive and my friends are, their faces on the wall here.
09:48 They're only 20, 21, 22.
09:52 We were just going on a festival to celebrate the holiday.
09:59 [Music]
10:05 You know, I myself have been involved with an event that had a terrorist attack in Manchester.
10:11 And I was involved with the response to that.
10:14 And I saw the whole world rally within two weeks to respond to that.
10:19 And that also was done by Suicide Bomber.
10:22 They thought that this was okay, this horrible act, but no one in the world justified it.
10:28 They just rallied behind us to say, "This is not okay. These are innocent people at a concert."
10:33 Here, over 360 of these kids were killed.
10:36 40 were taken hostage.
10:39 An American citizen, Hirsch, he's an American citizen who was at that festival and is still kidnapped to this day.
10:47 And people were tearing down his posters in this city, in New York City.
10:52 And I think we've lost sight. We've gotten too far away.
10:55 We've let the algorithms of social media promote the hate and distract us from the truth.
11:00 And I think that's why this exhibit is so important. That's why it's a dollar to come see it.
11:05 Come here and bear witness.
11:07 [Music]
11:10 [Speaking in Hebrew]
11:28 What do you hope people get out of seeing this?
11:35 I want people to come here and just see the truth in their eyes, because I hear the denying.
11:42 It's really hard for me as a survivor, us, to hear it.
11:47 This could be anyone.
11:49 This is it. It happened here. You can see the cars.
11:53 You can see the toilets.
11:56 People were hiding in the bathroom.
11:58 Jesus.
12:00 Nine bullets.
12:03 My daughter, Oriya, was the most beautiful girl in the world, inside and out.
12:10 Around 1.30 a.m. New York time, I looked at my phone and I saw a message from her, "Mom, I love you very much."
12:21 And apparently that was the last message from her phone.
12:25 It was to me.
12:29 I can't accept it. Something in me still waits to see her, to hug her.
12:35 I can tell my daughter's story, but if you look around, each and every one, behind every photo, you have a story just like my daughter's.
12:48 And behind every story, there are parents that a few hours before said hi to their kids,
12:57 and the next moment, they were gone.
13:01 Brutally murdered.
13:04 I have my own grief, but I feel like I have 400 more people to grieve, because it's not only mine.
13:18 My grief is connected with everyone else's.
13:23 People don't know.
13:29 These things on the table are victims' belongings.
13:44 They left behind them while trying to survive, and the police brought it back, and people could identify clothing of their dear ones.
13:57 It has a lot of sentimental value for all of us, especially for the parents.
14:03 My son, Matan, was a sound engineer of the music festival.
14:09 He saved more than 100 lives.
14:12 We have videos of him running and people running after him.
14:16 He understood immediately what was going on, and he saw a purpose in saving as many lives as he could.
14:24 These are Matan's shoes.
14:29 And then I actually let you go home.
14:33 It's okay. It's okay.
14:37 Do you think if someone sees this, do you think they'll understand what happened to you?
14:52 Yes, definitely.
14:54 You just want them to see what happened?
14:56 I want them to acknowledge the truth.
14:58 What do you say to those people who think they can't acknowledge you because they think it hurts the other,
15:03 and make them understand that you care just as much as they do about both sides?
15:07 It really hurts me even to hear this question. It takes my energy away.
15:12 It's just like, how can you even... how?
15:17 It's a nightmare.
15:21 It's not about Gaza, Israel. There's no connection between the music festival and politics.
15:28 Thank you so much. You're a light in the dark.
15:35 Thank you.
15:36 Thank you.
15:37 Thank you.
15:39 Thank you.
15:41 Thank you.
15:42 Thank you.
15:43 (upbeat music)
15:45 you