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Exhibition recreates fatal attack at Nova Music Festival

Theo

Time stands still at the Nova Music Festival Exhibition in Lower Manhattan. Yarin Ilovich was playing a sunrise DJ set at the Israeli music festival on October 7 when everything came to an abrupt halt.

“My partner Nimrod said to me: ‘Yarin, turn off the music!’ and I said, ‘Shut down?’ and he said, ‘Yeah, it’s a code red,'” Ilovich said.

What you need to know

  • The Nova Music Festival exhibition is an in-depth commemoration of the October 7 attack in Israel – approximately 370 festival-goers were killed by Hamas that day and 44 were kidnapped

  • Everything at the Nova exhibition was once on the festival grounds: tents, cell phones, forgotten hats, shirts and shoes, bullet-riddled portable toilets and burned cars

  • The exhibition premiered in Tel Aviv for ten weeks before running for four weeks in New York City
  • The exhibition runs until May 22nd

At 6:29 a.m., the peaceful gathering quickly turned deadly when Hamas militants launched a surprise attack, shooting at festival-goers as rockets flew overhead.

“Everyone was in chaos. People run screaming to other locations, other locations. There was a lot of traffic in the parking lots because there was a terrorist attack between police and terrorists on the street,” Ilovich said.

As those present tried to escape, jeeps full of gunmen began firing at the fleeing cars. They also blocked roads. Ilovich said he remembered hiding under a police vehicle for four hours as gunfire erupted around him.

“You have to be extremely careful because the target is on you because if someone sees you, they will shoot you,” Ilovich said.

Everything in the Nova exhibition was once located on the festival grounds. Tents filled with sand, sleeping bags and writings. Cell phones froze at 6:29am. Forgotten hats, shirts and shoes. Portable toilets with bullet holes and practically burned cars.

“For me, the most important thing is that they know what really happened there,” Ilovich said.

About 370 civilians were killed in the attack. Their faces cover the walls of the Nova exhibition.

“I think we have lost a sense of humanity behind this massacre and the Israeli people and the festival people,” said exhibition organizer Josh Kaden. “When you walk through the exhibition, you see yourself in these people.”

It wasn’t just festival visitors who were affected. The Hamas invasion resulted in 1,200 deaths across Israel and the abduction of 250 people – 44 of whom were from Nova. To date, around 130 hostages are still missing.

“They will never forget it and it will stay with them for the rest of their lives. “The feeling after this event will last forever,” Ilovich said.

The expansive exhibition culminates in the Nova Healing Tent, where guests make a solemn vow: “We will dance again.”

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