Skopje, 25 February 2026 (MIA) — During the hearings for the Pulse case at the Idrizovo prison's high-security courtroom earlier Wednesday, DNK band members and surviving guests took the stand to testify about the tragic night.

DNK's backing vocalist Ana Kostadinovska said sparklers were set off around the band as they performed one of their best known songs. She said she had felt the heat radiating from above and heard the band's frontman Vladimir Blazhev, also known as Pancho, telling everyone to leave the premises. No one took the situation seriously at first, however.

"Acting on instinct, I looked up. We moved slowly toward the exit. The door to my right was locked, so we took the longer way out as the situation was already escalating," Kostadinovska said, adding that she did not know who had set off the sparklers.

Speaking about the deadly stampede, she said she had fallen down and was trampled on. She also said there had been a strong odor that made her feel drowsy. A young man helped her as well as saving several other people, she said. 

She was treated for her burn injuries at hospitals in Kochani and Skopje but she has not completely recovered yet.

Goran Tonev testified that he had a verbal agreement with DNK's keyboard player Filip Stefanovski to perform as a guitarist with the band that night. He arrived around 10 pm. The pyrotechnic devices, according to him, had already been set up when the band got up on stage.

"We never talked about any pyrotechnics. We always talked about the setlist and the sound. I don't know who had set them up or who set them off," Tonev said.

Around 2:30 am, he heard Pancho, the frontman, telling the audience to get out. The ceiling had caught on fire, he said.

The fire tore quickly through the nightclub, Tonev said, adding that parts of the ceiling fell down as thick smoke engulfed the club. 

Due to severe burns to his airways, ear, neck and hand, he was treated in Thessaloniki and is still unable to play the guitar, which is his livelihood, he said.

Bojan Klimenkov, who was in the audience for the concert, spoke about the panic caused by the fire, which killed his friend Petre Ivanovski.

Klimenkov said there had been three sparklers on the stage. "We were standing right next to them and felt their heat on us," he said. He had not seen anyone setting them off and thought they were activated by pushing a button.

He said that shortly after they had been set off, the ceiling above the left sparkler caught on fire.

"Everyone started screaming, 'It's on fire! It's on fire!' Deko got on stage, tried to put out the fire, then Pancho said, 'Guys, get out!' and we headed toward the exit," he said.

Klimenkov said the stampede had started in front of the restroom. There were some 300-400 people trying to make their way out of the crowded nightclub. 

"I got stuck in the stampede and fainted. Then I came to, tried to get out, but there were five or six bodies on top of me," he said.

The fire that broke out in the Pulse nightclub in Kochani on March 16 killed 63 people and injured over 200. The venue was packed with mostly young people attending a concert by hip-hop duo DNK when sparks from pyrotechnic devices set the ceiling on fire.

Judge Diana Gruevska Ilievska is presiding over the trial. The prosecution, represented by a team of 15 public prosecutors, said evidence would show that the Pulse nighclub was a death trap from the beginning, the result of systemic negligence and a series of institutional failures.

Thirty-four people and three legal entities have been charged over the deadly fire, including owners, managers, inspectors, former mayors, security guards and civil servants. The hearings will resume on March 5. mr/