At least eight people have died, and numerous others were injured in what is being called a “mass casualty incident” at Travis Scott’s Astroworld music festival in Houston on Friday night.
According to AP, officials described the incident as a “surge of the crowd” while the 29-year-old-rapper was on stage.
“The crowd began to compress towards the front of the stage, and that caused some panic, and it started causing some injuries. People began to fall out, become unconscious, and it created additional panic,” Houston Fire Chief Samuel Peña told reporters at a press conference.
Peña said officials transported 17 people to hospitals, 11 of which were in cardiac arrest. It wasn’t immediately clear whether those who died were among the people that had been taken to hospitals.
The fire chief told AP that many people were treated at the scene, where they set up a field hospital in a nearby park. About 300 people were reportedly examined throughout the day at that site.
An estimated 50,000 people were in attendance for the sold-out two-day festival.
Kylie Jenner, who is pregnant with her and Travis Scott’s second child, and their 3-year-old daughter Stormi were also in Houston for the weekend. Kylie appeared to be in attendance with the crowd at the festival and shared videos from the show on her Instagram on Friday night. It is unclear if their daughter was also at the event when the incident occurred. Kylie hasn’t shared anything on social media following the incident regarding her condition or if she was injured.
Officials told AP that they are still investigating what caused the surge and a medical examiner is investigating the causes of death for the 8 people who died.
The show was called off shortly after the incident.
“Our hearts are with the Astroworld festival family tonight – especially those we lost in their loved ones. We are focused on supporting local officials however we ca, 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. Thank you to our partners at the Houston Police Department, fire department, and NRG park for their response and support,” a statement posted to the festival’s Facebook page said.
Verizon, a sponsor of the event, issued a statement to Access Hollywood saying that the company is “truly saddened by the tragic turn of events at the [Astroworld] festival in Houston,” adding, “our thoughts are with all who have been impacted.”
Houston Police Executive Assistant Chief Larry Satterwhite, who was near the front of the crowd, told reporters that the surge seemed to happen all at once.
“Suddenly we had several people down on the ground, experiencing some type of cardiac arrest or some type of medical episode,” he said. “And so we immediately started doing CPR, and moving people right then, and that’s when I went and met with the promoters, and Live Nation, and they agreed to end early in the interest of public safety.”
A number of other celebrities were in attendance for the concert. Drake re-posted a video on his Instagram story of himself performing at the concert, which was streaming live on Apple Music.
Astroworld has been hosted by the “Oh My Dis Side” rapper in his native of Houston since 2018.
Access Hollywood reached out to reps for Travis but did not immediately hear back.
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