Dror Bahat, 30: Supernova festival set designer and loving dog owner

Dror Bahat, 30, from Sde Nahum, was murdered by Hamas terrorists at the Supernova music festival on October 7.

Dror had his own company that built backdrops and sets for music festivals, and was the one responsible for the design at Supernova that day. He and his team had worked until 2 a.m. that Saturday before going to rest in Ashkelon, according to a state eulogy. At 6 a.m. they were called back to the site of the rave to fix something, and not long after the Hamas attack began.

He and his crew hid underneath the stage of the festival for several hours, and Dror texted his family asking them to direct help there. That was the last they heard from him. Dror and three of his employees, Shoval Yaakov, Oded Abergel and Avidan Torgeman, were all murdered at the site of the festival.

Dror was buried on October 11 in Kibbutz Beit Alfa in the north. He is survived by his parents, Ella and Idan, and his younger siblings Adi, Ziv and Gil.

Born and raised in Beit Alfa, a fourth generation on the kibbutz, Dror was active and sporty, and as a kid he learned how to ride a unicycle, even taking part in overseas competitions, his loved ones said. When he was 15 his family moved to Lagos, Nigeria, for two years, where he attended an international school.

He finished high school in Israel and enlisted in the IDF, serving as a mechanic in the Israeli Air Force. After his release, he traveled to India for an extended period, and when he returned to Israel he adopted his beloved dog, Rider, who accompanied him on all trips around the country moving forward. Dror worked for several years as a solar panel installer before starting his own festival design company and moved to Kibbutz Sde Nahum near his hometown.

He and Rider were rarely apart during the six years they were together, and after Dror’s death, his family said the dog has been inconsolable.

“My Drorik, the love of my life, you gave me the title ‘Mom’ for the first time,” his mother, Ella, wrote in a eulogy. “You taught me love that the heart cannot contain. You taught me so many feelings and mixed emotions, difficulty, frustration, joy, pride, endless worry. And now the pain of loss that the heart cannot contain. You gave me the cursed title of bereaved mother.”

“You traveled around the world as a free spirit… You always walked your own unique path without worrying about what others thought,” she added. “With everywhere you went and every person you met, you always knew how to touch the right spot, to say the right thing that will light up someone’s day. Children, the elderly, those with special needs — everyone as they are.”

Dror’s father, Idan, wrote in a eulogy that his son “took the world by storm. You knew how to live. You knew how to enjoy what there was and to exhaust it to the fullest. You spread warmth, love, opinions, kindness and generosity all over — as if you had an endless supply.”

Idan said Dror “managed in 30 years what people don’t manage in a full life. I wanted you to go study, to learn a profession, to work, advance, develop a career — but you had a different direction. Not that. Not the norm. Not the recognized and known and safe. You looked for interest and meaning… You loved parties, you loved your friends, your life was one big festival.”

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