Eight people were killed in a mass panic at a music festival in the USA and more than two dozen were taken to hospitals. Among the eight dead are two young people. They were 14 and 16 years old, the Mayor of Houston, Sylvester Turner, announced on Saturday afternoon (local time). There are many unanswered questions as to how the accident came about, said Turner.
The accident occurred on Friday evening (local time) at the Astroworld Festival in Houston, Texas. About 50,000 people had come to the festival, which according to the organizers was sold out. During the performance of US rapper Travis Scott there was a crowd in front of the stage, then panic broke out as people passed out. More than 300 people had to be treated in a field hospital on the festival site.
Rapper Travis Scott during his appearance at the Astroworld Festival
(Photo: AP)
Scott commented on the accident on Twitter. “I’m completely devastated by what happened last night,” wrote the 29-year-old rapper. He will pray for those affected and their relatives. The Houston police have their full support to solve the “tragic loss of life”. According to the organizers, artists such as Earth, Wind & Fire, SZA and Bad Bunny should also perform at the festival. District judge Lina Hidalgo emphasized that many of those affected were very young, some only ten years old. She spoke of a “terrible tragedy”. The authorities set up a contact point that relatives can turn to in search of missing persons.
Concertgoer Stephen Gutierrez from New York told local broadcaster KHOU 11: “I witnessed someone being passed out. (…) His friends tried to get him out of there, but people didn’t care enough to clear a path.” Eyewitness Angel Colon from Orlando, Florida told the broadcaster: “There was a lot of jumping in the front. If you didn’t jump, you fell and were trampled.”
According to CNN, the two-day festival was organized by Scott. Houston is the hometown of the 29-year-old rapper also known as La Flame and Cactus Jack. He was born there in 1992 as Jacques Webster Jr.
The tragedy is reminiscent of the fate of 21 people at the Duisburg Love Parade, who were pressed to death in a crowd in 2010. At a concert by the US rock band Pearl Jam in the summer of 2000, nine people died in front of the stage at the Danish Roskilde Festival. They were knocked down by the crowd from behind and trampled to death. After a concert in the Belarusian capital Minsk, more than 50 people were killed in a mass panic in 1999. At a performance by the Toten Hosen in Düsseldorf in 1997, a 16-year-old suffocated when thousands of fans rushed into the interior of the Rhein Stadium. Around 300 people were injured.