Astroworld Festival Cancelled After Eight Dead, Authorities and Attendees Describe Differing Details

Family members looking to contact their relatives attending the event, who may be out of reach, can go to the reunification center at 8686 Kirby Drive, the Wyndham Hotel. The phone number of the hotel is +1-713-748-3221

“It is not the kind of event you go to where you find out about fatalities” – Lina Hidalgo, Harris County Judge

The Third Annual Astroworld has been canceled after eight deaths have been reported at the festival. 

At around 9:00 to 9:15pm, the crowd of approximately 50,000 began to compress towards the front of the stage. Panic erupted in the crowd and injuries began to occur. Houston Fire Chief, Samuel Peña, says people were falling out, becoming unconscious, which all created further panic in the crowd causing more distress and harm.

The most deadly instance occurred after 9:30pm, during the middle of Travis Scott’s set. The Houston Fire Department transferred 17 patients to the hospital, following the “mass casualty”. 

12 transported by fire department ambulances, 5 by Harris county ER services. 11 of the total transported were already in cardiac arrest. 

Peña also reports over 300 attendees had been treated at the field hospital through the duration of the event, and 6 transports happened before the “mass incident”, totaling 23 transports from the full festival.

Peña goes on to confirm 8 casualties at this time and “scores” of injured individuals. Lina Hidalgo says some of the victims were as young as ten years old. 

The official cause of death of the eight who passed remains unknown still. “But we are in the process,” Peña says. Peña blames not the law enforcement, fire department, or others hired to maintain safety precautions, but the “chaotic event” itself. 

Houston Police Chief Troy Finner says, “It is very important none of us speculate, nobody has all the answers tonight.”

 “We will treat it as an investigation”, Finner continues, “We are sending investigators to the hospitals”. 

“We are going to do an investigation to find out because it is not fair, to the producers, to anybody else involved, until we determine what happened, what caused the surge. We do not know, but we will find out”, he continues, “Is there anything criminal?” He begins to stutter. “We heard rumors of people injecting drugs”, quickly concludes Finner before opening up to questions. 

A reporter asks a question addressing the lack of security at the event, in regards to attendees entering the event trampling upon one another. Video footage shows people destroying the VIP gate at the entrance. Nothing was done to control this, which occurred as soon as Astroworld began, posing the question if authorities were complacent in their job from the get-go. 

Posted by twitter user:@BrennonMoore34

“I knew that was gonna come up”, Finner follows. He attempts to contest the reporter’s claim of connectivity, he then concedes by saying things did in fact get out of their control as soon as the festival started, but claims the initial incident has no connection to the later deaths. Lina Hedalgo says however she is asking the same question, if the issues of the entrance were connected to the later catastrophe. “All of these questions are being looked at”, she claims. 

Authorities claim Travis Scott stopped the set as soon as he knew about the mass casualties. “It happened all at once”, Larry Satterwhite says, “it feels like it happened in a course of a few minutes”. Satterwhite claims he communicated that people were in danger to the promoter, then to Live Nation, and then it got to Travis who then stopped his set. Twitter users reveal a different story. 

Clip from Twitter user @onacasella shows a video of the music stopping during Travis Scott’s set, panning to an ambulance to the side of the crowd, Travis Scott saying, “What is that? [looking at the ambulance] (pause) Everyone go put a middle finger up in the sky”.

Another video from the same user reveals the ambulance, now deeper into the middle of the crowd, and Travis resuming his set, while somebody dances on top of the ambulance. 

An Instagram comment from @charlesalford says “the mosh pits weren’t even mosh pits, they were just giant crowds that kept pushing. I ended up carrying three dudes on my shoulder to the medical tent. I’m honestly more disappointed in the crowd, the medical staff couldn’t get to people.” 

One instagram post details the event and the person’s own experience losing consciousness. 

“I ask where the ambu bag is, where the AED is, where the stretcher and ambulance is, where any shit is, and they said essentially there is none”, says Madeline Eskins in her Instagram post from 5 hours ago. “There is one ambu, one bag, one stretcher, and one AED for 3 – now 4 – people who are pulseless and blue”. 

This is an immense tragedy and an unfortunate event of extreme gravity. My condolences go out to the family members and loved ones of those affected. Reminder: the reunification center is at 8686 Kirby Drive, the Wyndham Hotel. The phone number is +1-713-748-3221

 As the story develops updates will follow.