Eight people were killed and hundreds more were injured after being trampled over at Travis Scott’s annual Astroworld Festival in Houston, Texas, Friday.
Houstonians and rap-enthusiasts from around the country traveled to NRG Stadium for the long-awaited return of the Astroworld Festival after the event was postponed in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the event became fatal after the crowd pressed toward the stage and crushed many attendees, Fox News reported. (RELATED: Kylie Jenner’s Baby Daddy Is Off To A Really Good Start As A Father–Just Kidding)
“I think at the end of the day, it was the people in the back who had no regard for the people in the front, just pushing people up, it just got so crowded. And obviously part of it was the medical staff. There were not enough of them to help people once this happened, which caused panic,” festival attendee Benji Hananel told the Daily Caller.
DEVELOPING: At least 8 people are dead & dozens more injured after a sold-out crowd of roughly 50,000 surged during rapper @trvisXX‘s performance at @astroworldfest, overwhelming security forces and resulting in one of the deadliest concerts in US history. https://t.co/Qk7WLhGhbz pic.twitter.com/6pgrSQ9xTM
— Houston Chronicle (@HoustonChron) November 6, 2021
“I thought I was going to die 100%. There was a point where if I lost my footing on the ground, I would have died,” said Hananel.
“We were in the concert near the front of the stage, everyone was screaming for help to the cameramen, and they didn’t show it on the live stream, they tried to hide it, I honestly didn’t think I would make it for a second. That sh*t was scary.”
“It was eat or be eaten, if you were on the ground, people just weren’t helping. People were suffocating. It was so traumatizing. People were just walking over the people on the ground with no regard. I saw people’s lives leave their bodies,” Hananel continued.
Alan Rosen, constable of Harris County Precinct One, whose jurisdiction includes NRG Stadium, told the Daily Caller that he “was aware of the situation” and had assets on the ground Friday night.
Rosen suggested, going forward, to “stage people into the facility” and “have cutoff points to where a select group of people can go in at a time.”
The constable assured that “there will be an investigation that will involve people who attended the concert, the concert promoters, any and all video coverage taken, security plans submitted, and other evidence gathered from other sources. The people that need to be looked at are the people who are pushing people and are doing things that are against the law. There will absolutely be a criminal investigation into this, and I feel very confident that law enforcement will get to the bottom of it.”
Eight performances took place at the “Thrills Stage” before Travis Scott took the “Chills Stage” from 8:45 to 10 pm.
“Within the first 30 seconds of the first song, people began to drown — in other people,” described festival-goer Seanna Faith in a lengthy Instagram post.
“Breathing became something only a few people were capable of. The rest were crushed or unable to breathe in the thick, hot air. My friend began to gasp for breath, and she told me we needed to get out. We tried. There was no where to go” added Faith.
“People began to scream for help, some began to collapse. The music continued. Hundreds of people ripped their vocals cords apart screaming for help, but we were not heard.”
Faith also said that she made her way to a cameraman on an elevated platform that “looked directly into the crowd” and pleaded for him to do something. “I climbed the ladder and pointed to the hole, telling him people were dying. He told me to get off the platform, and continued filming. I screamed over and over again.”
more footage from the show 🙏🏾🙏🏾 #ASTROWORLDFest #AstroWorld pic.twitter.com/m1l7LaHzRv
— DaRealPiped😷💕 (@helowkeyspittin) November 6, 2021
View this post on Instagram
Another festival-goer, Madeline Eskins, an ICU nurse, also described the event in an Instagram post. “I looked around and people were getting carried out with eyes rolled back into their heads by security, bleeding from their nose and mouth. I yelled, ‘has ANYBODY checked a pulse?’ the security guard, frantic, asked me to please help him … for the remainder of the concert I was doing compressions, bagging and helping move people to stretchers and checking pulses on new bodies as they got crowd-surfed.”
Houston ICU Nurse Madeline Eskins says she was in the middle of the crowd at #ASTROWORLDFest when she passed out.
When she woke up in the VIP section, she immediately starting performing CPR to try to save others.
“It was the most horrific thing.”@FOX4 #ASTROFEST pic.twitter.com/263dnQ0SI5
— Peyton Yager (@peytonyager) November 6, 2021
View this post on Instagram
As the night wore on, shocking videos emerged of people trapped in the crowd pleading for help to no avail.
ppl were literally screaming bloody murder asking for help right there. #AstroWorld #ASTROFEST rip to all those who lost their life last night, it’s shouldn’t have turned out that way. pic.twitter.com/Qs3WvzmG4O
— tré⁶𓅓 (@tre5pix) November 6, 2021
In one video, Travis Scott appears to continue singing while he watches an unconscious fan being carried out of the crowd.
Another #disturbing video- Travis Scott continues to sing as he watched a unconscious fan at #ASTROFEST #AstroWorld2021 #Festival– At least 11 killed and 300+ injured.
#panic #injuries #Houston #ASTROWORLDFest #TravisScott #AstroWorld #Houston #KHOU11 pic.twitter.com/ZGH7zhCApi
— Chaudhary Parvez (@ChaudharyParvez) November 6, 2021
Whoever THESE DUDES are that was dancing on top of the medic cart while it was trying to literally save someone should be prosecuted ASAP#ASTROWORLDFest #ASTROFEST pic.twitter.com/HgzivgOQlC
— MikeyDub (@ReplyKimg) November 6, 2021
Later in the concert, rapper Drake made a surprise appearance. In a video posted to Twitter, people appear to be dancing on top of an ambulance during one of his songs.