Astroworld deaths: Victims were as young as 14 in 'mass casualty incident' at Travis Scott festival
Crowd surging at Travis Scott's Astroworld music festival led to eight deaths and "scores" of injuries, according to authorities.
Officials declared the Houston concert a "mass casualty incident" after getting a call Friday evening to the festival that took place at NRG Park. An estimated 50,000 people were in attendance at what the festival's website considered a sold-out show.
The surge began around the time that Scott, a festival headliner and founder, took the stage.
"The crowd began to compress toward the front of the stage, and that caused some panic, and it started causing some injuries," Houston Fire Chief Samuel Pe?a said at an overnight media briefing. "People began to fall out, become unconscious, and it created additional panic."
Here's everything we know about the music festival that turned fatal.
How many Astroworld deaths, injuries?
According to Houston authorities, eight attendees died after what they describe as a crowd surge at the Astroworld Festival on Friday shortly after 9 p.m.
Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said at a Saturday afternoon news conference there were 25 people transported to the hospital, and 13 are still hospitalized. A 10-year-old is in critical condition, officials said. There were scores of other injuries, Pe?a said. At least 11 suffered cardiac arrest, he added.
The victims who died ranged in age from 14 to 27, Turner said. One person's age was unknown. Autopsies will be performed before the victims are released to their families, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said.
Six of the eight victims' names have been released, among them: Danish Baig, 27; Rodolfo Angel Pe?a, 23; Axel Acosta, 21; Franco Patino, 21; Brianna Rodriguez, 16; and John Hilgert, 14.
More: Astroworld Festival victims were teens, college students and at least one aspiring model
Officials who spoke during Saturday's news conference did not confirm causes of death for the eight victims. Rodolfo Pe?a's brother, Guadalupe Pe?a, told USA TODAY authorities said his brother died of cardiac arrest while at the show.
Many others were treated at the scene, where a field hospital had been set up. About 300 people were examined at that site throughout the day Friday.
Astroworld promoters had medical personnel and an emergency transport component at the festival that "were quickly overwhelmed" as the injury count mounted at what the fire chief described as a "really a chaotic event."
What are Astroworld witnesses saying?
Astroworld festivalgoers said they witnessed dozens trampled by the massive crowd, teenagers giving each other CPR and fans screaming out for help that was slow to come Friday night.
"People were trying to get closer to Travis and ignored the pile of people they were stepping on. Some were crying, others were bleeding from their faces and I was the only one helping while the crowd just danced away," professional DJ Billy Nasser told USA TODAY.
Nasser has worked and attended festivals such as Rolling Loud and said nothing compared to the "madness" he experienced at Astroworld. He noted there was a barricade around the crowd for Scott's set that made it "nearly impossible" to get out.
'They were not breathing': Astroworld survivors recount bodies trampled, overwhelmed security
Rene Perez and Charles Alford also attended the festival and were shocked by the number of people passing out or being crushed by the crowd. As people in need were screaming, Perez said paramedics struggled to get through the crowd.
"It was insane and dangerous, it was dark and you saw people reaching their hands out from the ground, and me and my friend tried to help them," Perez told USA TODAY. "It just felt like staffing was low, and it felt like we were the only ones helping."
More witnesses react: Astroworld attendees call Travis Scott's festival 'dangerous,' say help was slow to arrive
What is a crowd surge?
A crowd surge can occur at festivals, concerts and large events when attendees collectively push forward, which can lead to large groups of people falling, shoving or being pressured to move past barricades.
Houston Police Executive Assistant Chief Larry Satterwhite was near the front of the crowd and said it seemed the surge at Friday's concert "happened all at once."
"Suddenly we had several people down on the ground, experiencing some type of cardiac arrest or some type of medical episode," Satterwhite 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."
Houston Police Chief Troy Finner called for calm and urged people not to "speculate" about what caused the surge.
"I think it's very important that none of us speculate. Nobody has all the answers tonight," Finner said. "We're going to do an investigation and find out because it's not fair to the producers, to anybody else involved, until we determine what happened, what caused the surge."
How do crowd surges cause deaths?
It’s usually not because victims are trampled: They're squeezed so hard they can’t get any oxygen.
When a crowd surges, the force can be strong enough to bend steel. It can also hit people from two directions: one from the rear of the crowd pushing forward and another from the front of the crowd trying to escape. If people have fallen, causing a pileup, pressure can even come from above. Victims' lungs are caught in the middle.
The crowd’s density may be the most important factor in a deadly surge, but it usually needs a catalyst to get everyone rushing in the same direction.
A sudden downpour of rain or hail could send everyone running for cover, as was the case when 93 soccer fans in Nepal were killed while surging toward locked stadium exits in 1988. Or if someone yells, “He has a gun!”
Surges don’t always happen because people are running away from something. Sometimes they’re caused by a crowd moving toward something, such as a performer on the stage. Poor crowd-management systems can lead to surges when event organizers don’t have strong procedures in place to report red flags or warnings.
What is Travis Scott's Astroworld?
Astroworld is a music festival started by Houston-native rapper and musician Scott in 2018.
Scott headlined the festival, which included a lineup of other musicians. Past performers include Pharrell, Gucci Mane, Sheck Wes, Megan Thee Stallion and Marilyn Manson.
Friday's festival was the third year for the event, which has taken place at NRG Park, the former site of Six Flags AstroWorld. There wasn't an Astroworld Festival in 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Who performed at Astroworld 2021?
The third Astroworld concert festival was announced May 5 on social media with a video of previous energetic and raging Astroworld crowds pushing and running to the concert stage.
"RETURN OF THE RAGE !!!," the festival's Instagram account captioned the ticket sales announcement. Tickets for the event were sold out in less than an hour without a lineup being announced, according to a news release at the time.
The lineup for the two-day festival was announced Oct. 26 and included names like Lil Baby, Baby Keem and Earth, Wind and Fire.
During the fatal concert Friday, Metro Boomin, Master P, Yves Tumor, Toro y Moi, Don Toliver and more were listed to perform.
SZA performed but left the concert early after not feeling well.
"Houston I no feel so good but thank you for having meeee sorry I didn’t kick it w the crowd tnt," she tweeted.
Drake made a surprise appearance and joined Scott on stage at the concert, which was live streamed by Apple Music, and posted photos to Instagram after the performance.
The second day of the concert has been canceled.
Contributing: Hannah Yasharoff and Kevin McCoy, USA TODAY, and The Associated Press
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Astroworld festival deaths: Victims' ages revealed; youngest was 14
