Nine people were crushed to death and hundreds injured during Travis Scott’s concert at his festival Astroworld Festival. MTO News confirmed that mayhem broke out when a crowd surged toward a stage at the Houston music festival on Friday night, crushing audience members who had nowhere to escape.
About 50,000 people were at the sold-out outdoor Astroworld Festival at NRG Park — the stadium complex where the Astrodome and the NRG Stadium stand — when the incident happened just after 9 p.m. CT, MTO News confirmed.
Video from the event showed the performer on stage — rapper and event organizer Travis Scott — pause and look on in confusion as an ambulance with flashing lights moved into the densely packed crowd.
“The crowd for whatever reason began to push and surge towards the front of the stage, which caused the people in the front to be compressed — they were unable to escape that situation,” Houston Fire Chief Sam Peña told CNN Saturday morning.
Here’s one audience member describe what happened in the concert:
And here’s video of the carnage: