According to Houston Fire Department Chief Samuel Peña at a press conference, the “mass casualty” event occurred at 9:38 p.m. local time at Houston’s NRG Park. Estimating the crowd’s attendance at around 50,000, Peña said trouble started shortly after 9 p.m. when “the crowd began to compress toward the front of the stage and that caused some panic and started causing some injuries. People began to fall out and become unconscious and that created additional panic.” Per Peña, Astroworld’s medical tent and staff was “quickly overwhelmed” by the scale of the incident, after which the Houston fire department stepped in and dispatched 50 units.
Travis Scott — who brought out Drake as a surprise guest during his Astroworld set — was the Friday night headliner and on stage when the tragedy occurred. Astroworld 2021 is the third annual edition of the festival, which occurred in 2018, 2019 and was put on hold for 2020 due to the pandemic.
See Astroworld’s statement below.
