Tragedy struck Travis Scott’s Astroworld Festival as crowd surges during his Friday night headlining set left 8 dead and over 300 injured, according to Houston officials.
50,000 fans surged during Scott’s performance at the festival outside NRG Park, the Houston Chronicle reports. At a press conference following the tragedy, Houston Fire Chief Samuel Peña outlined the timeline. He said that at 9 p.m. the crowd began surging forward during Scott’s set, which caused Scott to pause the show several times to ask security to help out fans, and sent members of the fire department into the dense crowd to rescue the injured.
At 9:38 p.m. the “mass-casualty incident” was triggered, at which time CPR began to get administered to several unconscious fans. Meanwhile, social media posts like the below show the frenzied scene as officials tried to rescue concertgoers.
Another video- #Disturbing video shows people #jumping on top of the police personal cars while they were trying to get #unconscious people out of the #crowd.#Houston #ASTROWORLDFest #TravisScott #AstroWorld #music #festival #Houston#KHOU11 pic.twitter.com/tubnfQIVPS
— Chaudhary Parvez (@ChaudharyParvez) November 6, 2021
“It happened all at once,” Executive Assistant Chief Larry Satterwhite said. “It seemed like it happened over the course of just a few minutes.”
“A lot of times, kids don’t make the best decisions,” he continued. “Because they’re young and amped up…. I just think it was so many people — and passion — to see this entertainer. I don’t know, and a lot of bad decisions”
“Our hearts are broken,” Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said. “People go to these events looking for a good time. It’s not the kind of event where you expect to find out about fatalities.”
Watch the Houston Fire Department press conference about the tragedy, via ABC13 Houston, below: