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Travis Scott was performing at Day 1 of the Astroworld Music Festival at NRG Park on Friday night when the crowd started to surge toward the stage ultimately resulting in a mass casualty incident. | Amy Harris/Invision/AP

Officials declared a “mass casualty incident” just after 9 p.m. Friday during the festival where an estimated 50,000 people were in attendance. Festival organizers canceled Saturday’s closing day of the two-day event.

HOUSTON — The crowd at a Houston music festival suddenly surged toward the stage during a performance by rapper Travis Scott, squeezing fans so tightly together that they could not breathe or move their arms, witnesses said Saturday, hours after at least eight people died in the chaos.

The pandemonium unfolded Friday evening at Astroworld, a sold-out, two-day event at NRG Park. An estimated 50,000 people were in attendance.

Niaara Goods, 28, said the crowd surged as a timer clicked down to the start of the performance.

“As soon as he jumped out on the stage, it was like an energy took over and everything went haywire. All of a sudden, your ribs are being crushed. You have someone’s arm in your neck. You’re trying to breathe, but you can’t,” Goods said.

Goods said she was so desperate to get out that she bit a man on the shoulder to get him to move.

Amy Harris/Invision/AP
Travis Scott performs at the Astroworld Music Festival. An estimated 50,000 persons were in attendance according to officials.

Houston Fire Chief Samuel Pena said the crowd’s movement toward the stage caused panic and some injuries. Then “people began to fall out, become unconscious, and it created additional panic.” Scores of people were hurt.

Experts who have studied deaths caused by crowd surges say they are often a result of density — too many people packed into a small space. The crowd is often running either away from a perceived threat or toward something they want, such as a performer, before hitting a barrier.

G. Keith Still, a visiting professor of crowd science at the United Kingdom’s University of Suffolk, has testified as an expert witness in court cases involving crowds. He said he usually does not look at eyewitness reports when in the early stages of analyzing an incident because emotions can cloud the picture, and witnesses can see only what’s immediately around them.

The deaths called to mind a 1979 concert by The Who where 11 people died as thousands of fans tried to get into Cincinnati’s Riverfront Coliseum. Other past crowd catastrophes include the deaths of 97 people in an overcrowded Hillsborough Stadium in 1989 in Sheffield, England, and numerous disasters connected with the annual hajj in Saudi Arabia.

AP
The crowd watches as Travis Scott performs at Astroworld Festival at NRG park on Friday night in Houston. Several people died and numerous others were injured in what officials described as a surge of the crowd at the music festival while Scott was performing.

People in the Houston crowd reported lots of pushing and shoving during the performances leading up to Scott’s set.

Then when Scott took the stage, the crowd seemed to rush to the front, trying to get closer to the stage, said Nick Johnson, a high school senior from the Houston suburb of Friendswood who was at the concert with friends.

“Everyone was passing out around you, and everyone was trying to help each other. But you just couldn’t move. You couldn’t do anything. You can’t even pick your arms up,” Johnson said. “It just got worse and worse.”

Johnson said fans started to crush each other, and people started screaming. He said it felt like 100 degrees in the crowd.

Scott seemed to be aware that something was going on in the crowd, but he might not have understood the severity of the situation, Johnson said.

On video posted to social media, Scott could be seen stopping the concert at one point and asking for aid for someone in the audience: “Security, somebody help real quick.”

In a tweet posted Saturday, Scott said he was “absolutely devastated by what took place last night.” He pledged to work “together with the Houston community to heal and support the families in need.”

Houston Police Executive Assistant Chief Larry Satterwhite, who was near the front of the crowd, said the surge “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.”

Satterwhite said promoters quickly agreed to end the event “in the interest of public safety.”

Amy Harris, a freelance photographer for The Associated Press, described an “aggressive” crowd atmosphere throughout the day because of the way fans were behaving — pushing and rushing the stage barricades and prohibited VIP and admission areas.

Amy Harris/Invision/AP
Festivalgoers are seen rushing into the VIP area prior to Travis Scott performing during day one of the Astroworld Music Festival at NRG Park on Friday, Nov. 5, 2021, in Houston.

“It was definitely the most chaotic festival environment that I’ve been in,” Harris said. “I felt uneasy all day.”

She got trapped behind a barricade while photographing performer Don Toliver because about 300 fans rushed the area. They ended up behind the security barricade with her.

She encountered a similar scene at a different stage for the main act. She left the media pit after three songs because of the disorder, which resulted in people being pulled over the security barricade to receive medical attention.

At one point, Gerardo Abad-Garcia was pressed so tightly into the crowd that he could not move his arms off his chest. During Toliver’s performance, which came before Scott’s appearance, he started getting concerned for his safety.

“I just couldn’t breathe. I was being compressed,” he said. A security guard helped him and others climb a fence and get out.

KTRK via AP
Emergency personnel respond to the Astroworld music festival in Houston on Friday, Nov. 5, 2021. Several people died and numerous others were injured in what officials described as a surge of the crowd at the music festival while Travis Scott was performing.

He described the crowd during Scott’s set as a wave that was “going forward and backward.”

Some people lost their shoes, and the ground was littered with clothing and trash. He said some people tried to help those who were passed out on the ground, while other concertgoers seemed to ignore them and continued watching the show.

After Scott’s concert, Abad-Garcia saw medical personnel performing CPR on someone who appeared to be unconscious as the person was taken away on a golf cart.

Authorities did not disclose the causes of death, and the dead were not immediately identified.

Scott, one of music’s biggest young stars, founded the Astroworld Festival in 2018. The 29-year-old Houston native has been nominated for eight Grammy Awards. He has a 3-year-old daughter with Kylie Jenner, who announced in September that she’s pregnant with their second child.

Drake joined Scott on-stage at the concert, which was livestreamed by Apple Music.

Elizabeth Conley/Houston Chronicle via AP Conley/Houston Chronicle via AP
People walk past a sign announcing Astroworld is canceled outside NRG in Houston on Saturday, Nov. 6, 2021.Read More

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Two people were shot November 6, 2021 in East Garfield Park. | Adobe Stock Photo

The pair were at Garfield Park near the 3400 block of West Madison Street when someone opened fire.

Two people, including a 16-year-old boy, were shot in a park Saturday morning in East Garfield Park.

Just before noon, the pair were at Garfield Park near the 3400 block of West Madison Street when someone opened fire, Chicago police said.

The teen boy was shot in the head and foot and was transported to Stroger Hospital in critical condition, police said. A man, 25, was struck in the leg and was taken to the same hospital, where he was stabilized.

Area Four detectives are investigating.

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Jeremy Colliton’s 3-year tenure as Blackhawks coach ended Saturday. | AP Photos

Three years to the day after Joel Quenneville’s firing, Jeremy Colliton is out as Hawks coach.

Jeremy Colliton is out as Blackhawks coach.

Three years to the day after Joel Quenneville’s abrupt 2018 firing, his hand-picked replacement was dismissed by the Hawks on Saturday after an inept 1-9-2 start to the season.

Derek King, formerly the Rockford IceHogs’ coach, will take over as interim coach in Colliton’s stead. King, who made 830 NHL appearances as a player, is accustomed to replacing Colliton: he did so three years ago in Rockford when Colliton replaced Quenneville.

Saturday’s overhaul not only answers a crucial question about interim general manager Kyle Davidson’s power — he has evidently been given plenty of it — but also continues the franchise’s drastic transition into a new era.

“Our on-ice goal remains the same: to build an elite system of hockey — and we have not delivered on that,” Davidson said in a statement. “The fact is our play and competitiveness must improve. Every game, every shift.

“Today’s coaching changes are difficult, especially given the incredible personal connections Jeremy and others have made with our players in their development. We appreciate Jeremy’s contributions to the organization over the last three seasons, and we wish him and his family the best.”

Hawks assistants Sheldon Brookbank and Tomas Mitell were also fired Saturday, while assistant Marc Crawford, goalie coach Jimmy Waite and others will remain on staff. Anders Sorensen takes over as Rockford’s interim coach.

“It has been an extremely difficult couple of weeks for our organization, and we have had to come to terms with a number of necessary changes,” CEO Danny Wirtz said in a statement. “Kyle Davidson has our full confidence and autonomy to make hockey decisions, and we support him on this coaching change.”

This story will be updated.

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Travis Scott was performing at Day 1 of the Astroworld Music Festival at NRG Park on Friday night when the crowd started to surge toward the stage ultimately resulting in a mass casualty incident. | Amy Harris/Invision/AP

Officials declared a “mass casualty incident” just after 9 p.m. Friday during the festival where an estimated 50,000 people were in attendance. Festival organizers canceled Saturday’s closing day of the two-day event.

HOUSTON — The crowd at a Houston music festival surged toward the stage during a performance by rapper Travis Scott, squeezing fans so tightly together that they could not breathe or move their arms, witnesses said Saturday, hours after at least eight people died in the chaos.

The pandemonium unfolded Friday evening at Astroworld, a sold-out, two-day event at the NRG Park stadium. An estimated 50,000 people were in attendance. It was not clear what set the crowd in motion.

Houston Fire Chief Samuel Pena said the crowd “began to compress towards the front of the stage” which triggered panic and caused some injuries. Then “people began to fall out, become unconscious, and it created additional panic.”

Seventeen people were taken to hospitals, including 11 who were in cardiac arrest, Pena said, and “scores of individuals” were injured.

Witnesses reported lots of pushing and shoving during the performances leading up to Scott’s set.

Amy Harris/Invision/AP
Travis Scott performs at the Astroworld Music Festival. An estimated 50,000 persons were in attendance according to officials.

When Scott took the stage, the crowd seemed to rush to the front, trying to get closer to the stage, said Nick Johnson, a high school senior from the Houston suburb of Friendswood who was at the concert with friends.

“It just got worse and worse. Everyone was like you just can’t breathe,” said Johnson, who was near the front of the stage in the middle part of the crowd.

Johnson said fans started to crush each other, and people started screaming. He said it felt like 100 degrees in the crowd, which was so thick that he and his friends could not move.

“Everyone was passing out around you, and everyone was trying to help each other. But you just couldn’t move. You couldn’t do anything. You can’t even pick your arms up,” Johnson said.

Scott seemed to be aware that something was going on in the crowd, but he might not have understood the severity of the situation, Johnson said.

On video posted to social media, Scott could be seen stopping the concert at one point and asking for aid for someone in the audience: “Security, somebody help real quick.”

In a tweet posted Saturday, Scott said he was “absolutely devastated by what took place last night.” He pledged to work “together with the Houston community to heal and support the families in need.”

Houston Police Executive Assistant Chief Larry Satterwhite, who was near the front of the crowd, said the surge “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.”

Satterwhite said he quickly met with promoters, who agreed to end the event “in the interest of public safety.”

Amy Harris, a freelance photographer for The Associated Press, described an “aggressive” crowd atmosphere throughout the day because of the way fans were behaving — pushing and rushing the stage barricades and prohibited VIP and admission areas.

“It was definitely the most chaotic festival environment that I’ve been in,” Harris said. “I felt uneasy all day.”

AP
The crowd watches as Travis Scott performs at Astroworld Festival at NRG park on Friday night in Houston. Several people died and numerous others were injured in what officials described as a surge of the crowd at the music festival while Scott was performing.

She got trapped behind a barricade while photographing performer Don Toliver because about 300 fans rushed the area. They ended up behind the security barricade with her.

Harris said she encountered a similar scene at a different stage for the main act. She left the media pit after three songs because of the disorder, which resulted in people being pulled over the security barricade to receive medical attention.

At one point, Gerardo Abad-Garcia was pressed so tightly into the crowd that he could not move his arms off his chest. During Toliver’s performance, which came before Scott’s appearance, he started getting concerned for his safety.

“I just couldn’t breathe. I was being compressed,” he said. A security guard helped him and others climb a fence and get out.

Amy Harris/Invision/AP
Festivalgoers are seen rushing into the VIP area prior to Travis Scott performing during day one of the Astroworld Music Festival at NRG Park on Friday, Nov. 5, 2021, in Houston.

He described the crowd during Scott’s set as a wave that was “going forward and backward.”

Some people lost their shoes, and the ground was littered with clothing, water bottles and other trash. He said some people tried to help those who were passed out on the ground, while other concertgoers seemed to ignore them and continued watching the show.

After Scott’s concert, Abad-Garcia saw medical personnel performing CPR on someone who appeared to be unconscious as the person was taken away on a golf cart.

Houston Police Chief Troy Finner urged people not to jump to conclusions about what caused the surge.

KTRK via AP
Emergency personnel respond to the Astroworld music festival in Houston on Friday, Nov. 5, 2021. Several people died and numerous others were injured in what officials described as a surge of the crowd at the music festival while Travis Scott was performing.

“I think it’s very important that none of us speculate. Nobody has all the answers tonight,” Finner said.

Authorities did not immediately know the causes of death, and the dead were not immediately identified. A medical examiner planned to investigate.

Scott, one of music’s biggest young stars, found the Astroworld Festival in 2018, and it has taken place at the former site of Six Flags AstroWorld each year since, except for 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic. The 29-year-old Houston native has been nominated for eight Grammy Awards. He has a 3-year-old daughter with Kylie Jenner, who announced in September that she’s pregnant with their second child.

Drake joined Scott on-stage at the concert — which was livestreamed by Apple Music — and posted photos to Instagram after the performance.

Elizabeth Conley/Houston Chronicle via AP Conley/Houston Chronicle via AP
People walk past a sign announcing Astroworld is canceled outside NRG in Houston on Saturday, Nov. 6, 2021.

Officials set up a reunification center at a hotel for family members who were unable to reach relatives at the event. Authorities sought to connect families with fans who were taken to the hospital, “some as young as 10” years old, said Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, the county’s top elected official.

The deaths called to mind a 1979 concert by The Who where 11 people died and about two dozen were injured as thousands of fans tried to get into Cincinnati’s Riverfront Coliseum.

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