One of the worst tragedies in the history of live concert events happened on Friday night. Astroworld a festival concert series in Houston, put on by Live Nation, experienced problems from the start. When the doors opened, concertgoers rushed the front gates, pushing through metal detectors and overwhelming front gate staff. Although, they were able to recover from that circumstance, it was not the end of the issues for the concert.
The Astroworld festival started in 2018 and was paused for 2020, because of the pandemic. This was its first event back, since then, and naturally people were excited to attend. But no one expected "a stampede burst through the gates."
As we were arriving to the Astroworld Festival at NRG Park right at 2:00, a stampede burst through the gates. Hundreds of people destroyed the VIP security entrance, bypassing the checkpoint. People were trampled. Some were detained.
— Mycah Hatfield (@MycahABC13) November 5, 2021
Once this situation was under control, the festival continued. No reported incidents came to light, until the evening. Travis Scott took the stage as one of the headliner performers. Drake later joined him and soon afterwords, chaos ensued. And a "mass casualty incident" broke out in the form of a stampede, leaving 8 dead and hundreds hospitalized.
WATCH: Terrifying Video And Grim First Hand Accounts From Horrific Travis Scott Astroworld Concert
READ: Travis Scott Breaks Silence, Speaks Out In Response To Horrific Astroworld Tragedy
Some reports are saying that they are unsure of the cause of the "mass casualty incident" and would not like to speculate until they have all the facts. This is a statement coming from the Houston Fire Chief Samuel Peña. He spoke out in a news briefing in the early hours of the morning.
Outlets like TMZ, on the other hand, are talking to sources associated with Astroworld. One person, who is described to be a "key person involved in the festival," is saying that the crowd went into chaos. Not because of an arbitrary, random event, but as what the source. is calling a "targeted" attack. An individual started injected concertgoers with a drug substance, caused panic to ensue and then the ultimate stampede surge. The source continued to say that authorities are in the middle of investigating if the people who went into cardiac arrest were indeed the ones who were injected. One of those who passed away is described as a 10-year-old. The source, who insinuated that the attack seemed to be targeted, says that the information is still unclear and is yet to be confirmed.
This story is still developing.
You may also be interested in:
