HOUSTON, Nov. 7 (BNA): Authorities said they will watch video, interview witnesses and review party protocols to determine how eight people died at a music festival in Houston when fans suddenly rushed onto the stage to watch rapper Travis Scott.
City officials said Saturday that they are in the early stages of investigating the chaos that unfolded Friday night at Astroworld, a two-day run-out event at NRG Park with an estimated 50,000 attendees. The Associated Press (AP) reported that when the timer tapped down to begin Scott’s performance, the audience rushed forward.
“Once he jumped on stage, it looked like energy had taken over the stage and everything went well,” said Nyaara Gods, one of the concert attendees. “All of a sudden, your ribs are being crushed. You have someone’s arm in your neck. You try to breathe, but you can’t.”
Cargo said she was so desperate to get out that she bit a man on the shoulder to get him to move.
Mayor Sylvester Turner said the ages of the dead ranged from 14 to 27 and 13 people remained in hospital on Saturday. He described the disaster as “a tragedy on many different levels” and said it was too early to draw conclusions about what went wrong. Dozens were injured.
“This tragedy may have been the result of unexpected events, of circumstances coming together that could not have been avoided,” said Harris County District Judge Lena Hidalgo. “But until we figure that out, I’m going to ask the hard questions.”
Experts who have studied deaths from crowd rushes say they’re often the result of density — too many people crammed into a small space. Often the audience either flees away from a potential threat or toward something they want, such as a performer, before they hit a barrier.
made c. Keith Steele, Visiting Professor of Crowd Science at the University of Suffolk, UK, has testified as an expert witness in court cases involving crowds. He said he usually does not look at eyewitness reports in the early stages of analyzing an incident because emotions can overshadow a picture, and only witnesses can immediately see what is going on around them.
Based on fire laws, the venue could have accommodated 200,000 people, Houston Fire Chief Samuel Peña said, but city officials have limited attendance to 50,000.
“The problem was crowd control on the stage of the stage, especially as the crowd started rushing toward the podium,” Peña said.
The deaths brought to mind a 1979 Who concert in which 11 people died as thousands of fans tried to enter the Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati. Other disasters in the past among fans include the death of 97 people at the overcrowded Hillsborough stadium in 1989 in Sheffield, England, and several disasters linked to the annual Hajj in Saudi Arabia.
People in the Houston crowd reported a lot of pushing and shoving during the shows leading up to Scott’s set.
Then when Scott took the stage, the crowd seemed to lunge forward, trying to get closer to the stage.
Johnson said it seemed like Scott was aware that something was going on in the crowd, but he may not have understood the gravity of the situation. A social media post shows fans who appear to be dozens of rows from the stage chanting “Stop the show” during Scott’s performance. Another post shows two fans climbing a ladder onto a platform and asking the photographer to do something.
In a video posted on social media, Scott can be seen stopping the concert at one point and asking for someone’s help from the audience: “Security, someone help real fast.”
In a tweet posted on Saturday, Scott said he was “completely devastated by what happened last night.” He pledged to work “with the Houston community to heal and support families in need.”
Amy Harris, a freelance photographer for the Associated Press, described the crowd’s “aggressive” atmosphere throughout the day due to the way fans behaved – pushing and rushing into stage barriers and banning VIP access and entry areas.
“It was definitely the most chaotic festival environment I’ve been in,” Harris said. “I felt uncomfortable all day.”
Houston Police Chief Troy Viner said his department noticed attendance “dropping down” at 9:30 p.m. and immediately notified party organizers. The event was canceled 40 minutes later after discussions that included the fire department and officials at NRG Park.
Finner defended the amount of time it took to cancel the event.
“You can’t just close when you have 50,000 – over 50,000 – individuals, okay?” Wiener said. “We have to worry about riots — riots — when you have a group that’s this young.”
Some audience members said that barriers erected near the stage and separating different sections of ticket holders prevented fans from escaping.
Billy Nasir described the area created by a barrier on the stage as a closet in which people were thrown and the door closed. Joshua Robinson said the barricades created an area that was “too small and too compact” for the number of people there.
The fire chief said part of the investigation will include reviewing how the area around the stage was designed.
The authorities did not reveal the cause of death and the dead were not immediately identified.
The police chief said authorities are investigating reports of suspicious activity in the crowd, including a security officer who told police he felt a tingling in his neck during the chaos and lost consciousness while being checked by paramedics. He was revived by Narcan, the opium antidote.
MI