Houston’s Astroworld Fest, a Rap/Hip-Hop festival slated to run the entire weekend of November 4-5, experienced unexpected havoc on its first night.
ABC 13 Houston
Officials said eight people died and hundreds were injured Friday night during NRG Park’s weekend-long music festival.
It happened at the third-annual Astroworld Festival, a sold-out concert event featuring multiple acts.
This third annual festival themed, “Open Your Eyes to a Whole New World”, had approximately 50,000 concertgoers in attendance. In a surprising appearance, Travis Scott (festival founder) was joined by Drake (hip-hop artist).
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.
SkyEye showed that organizers stopped the show early Friday night due to heavy fire and police department activity. Houston Police Chief Troy Finner said that Travis Scott and LiveNation had stopped the concert after it became apparent that many people were injured.
Officials from Houston and Harris County are trying to figure out how Friday’s tragedy occurred.
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.
11 people confirmed dead & 300+ injured this is insane and very disturbingThis is what it looks like!! #ASTROWORLDFest pic.twitter.com/z6hUTIhtUg
— ✞ (@MRDIORWRLD) November 6, 2021
Astroworld Festival was founded in 2018 as Travis Scott, a Houstonian and event founder. NRG Park, a 350-acre park that hosts the festival, is located just across from Astroworld Theme Park. With 100,000 tickets being sold in the first few minutes of the November announcements, the 2021 event was highly anticipated.
Las Vegas’ 2017 massacre was the last concert that witnessed unexpected death and tragedy.
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