An avalanche of people at Houston’s Astroworld music festival crushed concertgoers Friday, leaving them trampled and breathless, struggling to survive against a wall of people advancing toward the stage.
In a matter of minutes, the Astroworld festival turned deadly
Police are investigating the possible causes of the overflow, which occurred at the Astroworld festival at NRG Park and resulted in the deaths of eight people, as well as many more injuries. The show continued for 40 minutes after initial reports of injured spectators reached first responders.
As authorities reconstruct the moments before and after the surge, here is a chronology of what happened, according to authorities, witness accounts and CNN reports.
Astroworld festival tragedy: at least 8 dead in Houston while Travis Scott was on stage.
Before the show: earlier in the day, video from CNN affiliate KPRC showed numerous people making their way through the VIP entrance to the event, knocking over metal detectors and others and ignoring security personnel.
Before 9 p.m. Central Time: Madeline Eskins, an ICU nurse who attended the show, told CNN’s Christi Paul that a countdown timer started about 30 minutes before Scott was ready to appear on stage.
“And all of a sudden, people compressed and pushed back and forth. As the timer got closer to zero, everything got worse,” Eskins said.
The moment Travis Scott stops his concert 0:21
Hell was breaking loose
Concertgoer Jeffrey Schmidt said breathing became more difficult as the countdown approached zero, when he and his friend decided to try to get out of the crowd.
“Little did we know that all hell was about to break loose. People started passing out and falling to the ground,” Schmidt told CNN.
Shortly after 9 p.m., Scott took the stage to begin his performance. According to one of the concertgoers, the audience was overflowing as the show began.
“The audience got tighter and tighter, and at that point it was hard to breathe. When Travis came out to play his first song, I witnessed people swooning next to me,” said TK Tellez.
“This wasn’t a concert, it was a fight for survival”: Travis Scott fans describe scenes of chaos and tragedy at Astroworld festival
