At least one person is dead and dozens injured after high winds caused part of the main stage to collapse at a dance-music festival near the Spanish city of Valencia.

Other infrastructure was also damaged on Saturday when gusts battered the Medusa Festival, a huge electronic music festival held over six days in the east coast town of Cullera.

Forty people were taken to hospital and three remained there on Saturday afternoon, regional health authorities said.

Organisers said they were cancelling the rest of the festival for the safety of attendees.

Tweet from @TheFestiveOwl

“We are completely devastated and saddened at what happened this morning,” organisers said earlier on the festival’s Facebook page, adding that “extreme” weather conditions had caused damage to various infrastructure on the festival site.

“At around four in the morning unexpected and violent strong winds destroyed certain areas of the festival, forcing management to make the immediate decision to vacate the concert area to guarantee the safety of attendees, workers and artists,” organisers said.

The festival, where French DJ David Guetta was due to play on Saturday, had DJs scheduled throughout the night on Friday across five stages. DJ Miguel Serna was on the main stage for his set when the incident occurred.

‘A few moments of horror’

“It was a tense few minutes, I’ve never experienced anything like it before,” he wrote on Instagram.

“The tragedy happened just at the end of my session on the main stage, just below it, which was the most affected (area). It was a few moments of horror, I am still in shock.”

National weather agency AEMET said there had been “strong gusts of wind and a sudden rise in temperatures” during the night, with gusts of 80km/h recorded at Alicante airport in the Valencia region.

National broadcaster TVE showed images of strong gusts of wind battering against people’s tents and festival awnings in the middle of the night, as people shielded their eyes from the sandstorm-like conditions.

-AAP