Eight Deaths And More Than A Hundred Injuries Occurred At Travis Scott’s Astroworld Festival

After he was forced to cancel last year’s edition of the festival, Travis Scott and his fans were extremely excited for the return of his trademark Astroworld Festival which he launched back in 2018. However, that excitement quickly turned into tragedy and chaos on the showcase’s first day. Houston’s KHOU and the Associated Press report that at least eight deaths and hundreds of injuries occurred during Travis’ solo set to end the first night of the Astroworld Festival. Fire Chief Samuel Peña spoke about the incident during a press conference after the festival on Friday night.

“The crowd began to compress towards the front of the stage, and that caused some panic, and it started causing some injuries,” he said to reporters. “People began to fall out, become unconscious, and it created additional panic.” He added that around 9:38 PM local time, the incident became a “mass causality event” as medical units on hand were “quickly overwhelmed” by the “scores of people” that were treated for injuries. Peña confirmed 17 people were transported to local hospitals, including 11 who were under cardiac arrest. A 10-year-old was one of the many people hospitalized as a result of the incident at the festival. In total, more than 300 people were treated on-site at Astroworld.

As a result, Astroworld Festival organizers announced that day two of the showcase is canceled. They also released an official statement on the matter early Saturday morning. “Our hearts are with the Astroworld Festival family tonight especially those we lost and their loved ones,” they wrote. “We are focused on supporting local officials however we can. With that in mind the festival will no longer be held on Saturday. As authorities mentioned in their press conference earlier, they are looking into the series of cardiac arrests that took place. If you have any relevant information on this, please reach out to @houstonpolice.” They added, “Thank you to our partners at the Houston Police Department, Fire Department, and NRG Park for their response and support.”

A number of posts from fans show the frantic moments that took place inside the crowd as many were left to give CPR to fellow attendees while screaming for help from security and medics. One post went into great detail about the chaos and suffocating atmosphere that was present in the crowd. Another showed attendees’ desperate but unfortunately unsuccessful attempt to grab a cameraman’s attention and notify them of what was happening within the crowd.

You can view the statement from Fire Chief Samuel Peña and Astroworld Festival organizer above. You can also view tweets from attendees below.