After October 7, Tribe of Nova became a community of victims

On a stark stage, lighted by shard-like bolts of green, blue and turquoise, the Tribe of Nova held its second ceremony of remembrance for those who were murdered at the Nova Trance Music Rave on October 7, 2023.

More than 3500 people attended that fateful Rave. At precisely 6:29 am, on what has come to be known as Black Saturday, as the revellers danced and watched the sunrise, Hamas terrorist flooded into southern Israel. Over 1200 people were killed,  411 of them at the Rave (and another died a year later). Some 250 were taken hostage, 40 of them from the Nova Festival.

The Nova trance Raves were annual musical events, but only two months after that massacre, the organizers established the Tribe of Nova Foundation to provide support for grieving families and friends and for survivors.  The Tribe of Nova holds gatherings several times a year including community days, “wellness events” with yoga and other health activities, and skills workshops in addition to memorial ceremony.

Before filling into the hanger in the Tel Aviv Port where the ceremony takes place, the crowd of hundreds mills about in a large outside space. Older men and women greet each other somberly.  Younger people, most appearing to be in the late twenties and early thirties, the men with man-buns and buzz cuts and the women with long hair, most with tattoos and dressed in black, greet each other with long hugs and black-slaps.

Throughout the area, as sad Israeli pop songs play in the background, pictures of the dead and the remaining 48 hostages are shown on large screens.  Installations, including a “Tree of Grieving,” and a mandala of seeds, flowers, stones, and earth.