Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Courtesy of Ido Sinvani/Twitter
As told to the author, this is a first person account by Ido Sinvani, a 22-year-old survivor of the massacre that Hamas terrorists unleashed on civilians at the Nova Music Festival in Re’im, Israel.
Last Friday afternoon, my friends Yovel, his brother, Ofir, and their friend, Shimon picked me up from Ein Hod, a small artist village near Haifa where my mom lives, and we drove four to five hours South to Re’im to attend the Nova music festival.
Yovel, an artist invited to exhibit his work there, got us all in for free. We just needed to get there early to set up his pop-up gallery. Around midnight, the gates opened and the first DJ hit the stage. As the beats pumped, we drank Arak [an anise-flavored spirit] with lemonade and added energy powder to keep us dancing all night. Once the sun began to rise, we decided to refuel and left the rave to grab breakfast. We were determined to party until the festival ended at 3 p.m.