8 dead, hundreds hurt as Travis Scott's Astroworld Festival turns into mass casualty incident Friday night

Authored by abc13.com and submitted by improbablydrunknlw

Skeye13 shows aftermath of Astroworld Festival's mass casualty

ABC13 Morning News coverage of disaster at Astroworld Festival

8 dead, hundreds injured at Astroworld Festival

HFD Chief Sam Pena speaks on mass casualty at Astroworld Fest

UNCUT: Astroworld Festival attendees trampled during mad rush to get in

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Eight people died Friday night and hundreds of others were injured during the opening night of a popular weekend music festival at NRG Park, authorities said.It happened at the third-annual Astroworld Festival , a sold-out concert event featuring multiple acts.The worst of the incident began around 9:15 p.m. when the crowd of approximately 50,000 concert-goers began to move toward the front of the stage, according to Houston Fire Chief Samuel Peña."The crowd began to compress toward the front of the stage, and people began to panic," Peña said.The view from SkyEye overhead Friday night showed the heavy police and fire department activity in the area of the event as organizers ended it early. The organizers, rapper Travis Scott and LiveNation, stopped the show when it was apparent that multiple people were hurt, according to Houston Police Chief Troy Finner.While the most deadly moments happened after 9:30 p.m., Peña said more than 300 patients total had been treated at a field hospital since the event began, including people who were hurt during the worst moments. While names and ages of the casualties weren't known, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said one of the victims was 10-years-old.Houston Fire Department and Harris County medics transported 23 people to hospitals, 17 of those patients were taken away during the worst of the ordeal, according to Peña, who also said CPR had to be performed on 11 of the victims. HFD had 55 units in-service for the festival, Peña said.Festival founder Travis Scott, a rapper and Missouri City native, was joined on stage by Drake in a surprise appearance as the crowd surged.HPD Executive Assistant Chief Larry Satterwhite was on-duty at the festival along with 367 police officers and 241 security officers. He gave his first-hand account during an early morning press conference."Once we started having the mass casualty incident, they were starting CPR on several people, and it happened all at once," Satterwhite said. "It seemed like it happened over the course of just a few minutes. Suddenly, we had several people down on the ground experiencing some type of cardiac arrest or some type of medical episode."Medical transports were already at the park for the multi-day festival, but staff was quickly overwhelmed with injured people, authorities said.Investigators were dispatched to hospitals Saturday morning in an attempt to identify the victims. The Harris County Medical Examiner's Office will determine how the eight people died.The rest of the weekend's planned performances were canceled, and the area is now a crime scene as investigators work to find out what exactly happened."At some point, the show was stopped when the crowd was surging," Finner said as he noted the event's promoters were cooperating with investigators.It wasn't yet clear what caused the deaths or injuries. Finner early Saturday shot down any early speculation about the multiple fatalities."There are a lot of rumors going around," Finner said. "We have hurting families out here."Organizers with Astroworld Festival released the following statement early Saturday morning:A reunification center was set up at 8686 Kirby Drive near the South Loop at the Wyndham Houston hotel for family members to connect with their loved ones who may have attended the festival. The reunion location is being staffed by personnel from Houston Police, the Houston Fire Department and counselors, authorities said. City leaders urged family members to visit the location if they haven't been in touch with their loved ones who attended the concert."If you're a relative, (and your) family member was at this event and you have not spoken to this individual, we have units available to assist," Finner said.Residents from outside the Houston-area who haven't heard loved ones who attended the festival can call 832-393-2991 or 832-393-2990.While it was too early to know if the deaths or injuries were the result of criminal activity, Finner said his department investigating any possibilities."Until we determine what happened, what caused the surge, we don't know," Finner said. "We will find out. Is there anything criminal? We don't know."The deadly incident came hours after a massive crowd stormed the perimeter of NRG Park, creating a chaotic situation for security personnel and event staff. Finner said the two events were not related.Multiple fans were trampled Friday afternoon as hundreds rushed the event's perimeter, knocking down metal detectors and a security screening area. It still wasn't clear Saturday if anyone suffered major injuries during the earlier incident.ABC13 Reporter Mycah Hatfield was near the entrance Friday afternoon as the mob approached, and said security personnel were able to move some people away from the entrance before the crowd overtook the gates.The event's 100,000 tickets sold out within an hour of going on sale back in May.Travis Scott, the popular rapper and organizer, launched the Astroworld Festival in 2018 . Like most other large events, it was canceled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.ABC13 has reached out to Live Nation Entertainment, the festival's promoter, and representatives for Travis Scott.The rapper released the following statement, expressing his heartache over the incident on Saturday morning:

mangosquisher10 on November 6th, 2021 at 08:06 UTC »

Some accounts from medics that were there:

I just left astroworld festival and let me say this. as someone who has been to every astro fest there's been, this was completely different. it was awful. I passed out because people were pushing up against me so much that I couldn't breathe. Sam got people to apparently crowd surf my unconscious body to the security guard and I gotcarried to a little section behind GA and put down on a stool thing. when I woke up I had a water bottle in my lap and had no clue what had happened. When I stood up I looked around and people were getting carried out with eyes rolled back into their heads by security, bleeding from their nose and mouth. I yelled “has ANYBODY checked a pulse?” the security guard, frantic, asked me to please help him. I checked two people and one did not have a pulse. I told them I was an ICU nurse and then another security guard, hearing that, said “please come help us.” He takes me to the part of the crowd behind GA where I see 3 bodies sprawled out and people who I assume were medics/medical staff doing CPR.I immediately see that there is not enough medics for this so I relieve one medic of CPR. I ask where the ambu bag is, where the AED is, where the stretcher and ambulance is, where tf any shit is and they said essentially there is none. there’s one ambu bag, one stretcher and one AED for 3 - now 4 - people who are pulseless and blue. People from the crowd were trying to help. teenagers are doing CPR trying to help but they're doing it incorrectly, then I see there's other people doing CPR on people who still have a pulse bc nobody has done a pulse check. it was an absolute shit show. I lost Sam for I don't even know how long but for the remainder of the concert I was doing compressions, bagging and helping move people to stretchers and checking pulses on new bodies as they got crowd-surfed to where we were. people were trampled, crushed. there was no cell service to call for more help. People were begging the crew operating the stage lights and stuff around us to stop the concert and they wouldn't. I am so disappointed and sad. Finally cops showed up with more stretchers and started getting people out but I know at least 2 individuals had been pulseless for 15 minutes minimum before they got on a stretcher.

madddeline_____ on insta

I’m a trained medic. I was doing cpr on a girl as drake came was coming on with Travis. Two “medical staff” came over to help. They were like deer in headlights. They had no fuckin clue what they were doing. One of them straight up left; The other “medic” was screaming if anyone else knew CPR. The two that came over had no ambu bag, no gloves, no AED, nothing. I had the girls friend do mouth to mouth while the dumbass medic was just standing there. I’m yelling for an AED, even a damn CPR pocket mask. They eventually get a backboard And start to put her on backwards (feet at the narrow end). I call the guy an idiot and flip it over. Finally we get her on a backboard, cops come over and rip me off her. They pick the backboard up only to drop her on her face. I was so incredibly mad. I watched a girl die in front of me all because these “medics” were so ill prepared. I’d encourage anyone here to open lawsuits against this Cactus Jack/ astroworld bullshit. So sad.

- u/maxomo32

welfarecuban on November 6th, 2021 at 07:49 UTC »

It's surprising that only 8 people died in that incident. Based on videos from the scene, it looked like quite a few more than that.

Video_Fast on November 6th, 2021 at 06:54 UTC »

100,000 people pushing - now reported at 8 dead with other injuries at Travis Scott Concert. Multiple Cardiac Arrests Reported.

https://twitter.com/mvmo___/status/1456870414530064385?s=20

Edit - “ Officials declared a “mass casualty incident” just after 9 p.m. Friday during the festival where an estimated 50,000 people were in attendance, Houston Fire Chief Samuel Peña told reporters at a news conference. “. https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Astroworld-8-dead-crowd-crushed-Houston-Texas-16597536.php