Superstar rapper Travis Scott‘s Astroworld music festival in Houston on Friday has left at least eight people dead and dozens injured after a crowd surge.
The city’s fire chief, Samuel Peña, shared at a news conference that after a large group began pushing towards the stage, it “caused some panic, and it started causing some injuries.”
According to the fire department, approximately 50,000 people attended the concert Friday, which was part of a two-day festival. Twenty-three people were taken to nearby hospitals, with 11 of those patients in cardiac arrest, while over 300 people were treated at a “field hospital” on site, Chief Peña said.
“It happened all at once,” Larry Satterwhite, the executive assistant chief of the Houston police, said at the news conference. Live Nation, who put on the festival, then stopped Scott’s performance early.
Watch on FN
The merch line at Travis Scott’s Astroworld festival 👀pic.twitter.com/DNXD0ESo8i
— XXL Magazine (@XXL) November 5, 2021
“Travis Scott, he took pauses to point at the crowd to say, like, ‘Go help them — they’re passed out,’” said Chief Satterwhite. Reiterating that, one concert goer Angel Rodriguez told the news this morning, “He did it like three times. He pointed to the area where it was and said for everybody in the area to go help them and bring them to the front.”
Organizers shared in a statement on Instagram that the second day of the festival would not go on as planned today. “Our hearts are with the Astroworld Festival family tonight — especially those we lost and their loved ones,” the statement read.
