A 15-year-old who attended the Beach, Please festival in Costinesti, Romania, has been left hospitalized after they were encouraged to jump off the stage by rapper Destroy Lonely.
As reported by Rolling Stone, via Romanian news publication Observator, Destroy Lonely performed at the festival on July 11 when he encouraged the fan, a 15-year-old only identified as Nicolas, to jump off the stage. The boy, who spoke from a hospital bed in intensive care, said that he briefly joined Destroy Lonely onstage but was told to jump off the stage after about a minute.
“I need you to jump right back in there with your friends, you ready?” he said to Nicolas, who appeared to hesitate in a graphic video of the incident. Destroy Lonely grabbed his hoodie and pushed him towards the edge, and Nicolas ran off and hit a barricade. The concert continued as normal and was not delayed by his injury. Nicolas was administered first aid at the scene, but when he was taken to a nearby hospital, he discovered that he suffered a pulmonary contusion and lesions on his liver and one of his kidneys.
“When I fell, I thought I was dying,” Nicolas told the Romanian news outlet. “I had no more air, I ran out of air. I thought if I didn’t get help here, these would be my last moments.” He fell over ten feet from the stage and told his mother, with whom he attended the festival, that he regretted ever going. She added that she plans to take some form of legal action.
“We are relieved and grateful to report that [Nicolas] is now in stable condition, recovering well, and expected to make a full recovery,” reads a statement from the organizers of Beach, Please. “Throughout this time, we have remained in close contact with his family, offering our full support. His well-being continues to be our highest priority. At Beach, Please!, our mission is to create unforgettable experiences — never at the expense of safety. We believe festivals must lead by example when it comes to care, responsibility, and respect for the crowd. This incident has only strengthened our commitment to those values.”
Beach, Please co-founder Andrei Şelaru has indicated that Destroy Lonely will not play the festival in the future due to his “irresponsible attitude,” per Romanian newspaper Adevarul.
