U2 Used Their Sphere Show In Las Vegas To Pay Tribute To The Victims Of The Nova Music Festival Attack In Israel

On October 7, the Tribe Of Nova trance music festival was held in Re’im, in southern Israel near the Gaza border. What was supposed to be a fun event full of music and dancing ended in tragedy, though: As BBC News noted in a report shared yesterday (October 8), “Palestinian militants stormed the festival and opened fire as part of huge surprise attack on Israel. More than 260 bodies have reportedly been recovered from the festival site.”

The deadly event has garnered international attention, including from U2, who took a moment on stage to acknowledge what happened.

As the band performed at The Sphere in Las Vegas yesterday (as The Jewish Chronicle reports), Bono paid tribute to those who lost their lives, saying, “We sing for our brothers and sisters, who they themselves were singing at the Supernova Succot 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.”

The Associated Press shared first-hand accounts from survivors of the festival, and one attendee noted, “We were hiding and running, hiding and running, in an open field, the worst place you could possibly be in that situation. For a country where everyone in these circles knows everyone, this is a trauma like I could never imagine.”