‘Travis and I are broken and devastated’: Kylie Jenner breaks her silence after stampede at rapper boyfriend’s Astroworld festival show leaves eight people dead and ‘hundreds’ more injured
- Jenner, 24, who is expecting her second child by Scott, attended the concert with her sister Kendall who is also said to be unhurt
- Eight people are dead and ‘hundreds’ more injured after a crush and stampede at Astroworld Festival in Texas
- The rest of the festival has been scrapped after revelers surged towards the stage on Friday just after 9pm while Travis Scott was performing at Houston’s NRG Park
- Disturbing video from the concert showed people lying unconscious in the middle of the crowd as officers and emergency personnel performed CPR while others were seen begging concert staff for help
- Jenner shared a video panning the audience to her Instagram story, which showed an emergency vehicle trying to make its way through the crowd
- Seventeen people were taken to hospitals, with 11 of those in cardiac arrest, out of a crowd of 50,000. The two-day event was sold out after being cancelled last year due to Covid
- Hours before the deadly crush, at 2pm, hundreds of revelers – who did not appear to have tickets – stormed the event’s VIP entrance around yet the stampede did not appear to be related to the surge
- Police are reportedly working to identify the victims and are awaiting the medical examiner’s investigation to determine a cause of death
Kylie Jenner has said she was unaware people died at her partner Travis Barker’s Astroworld festival until after the show.
The reality star, 24, sent her ‘deepest condolences’ to the families of the eight people who died during a stampede at the festival in Houston, Texas on Friday.
Taking to Instagram, Kylie said in a statement: ‘Travis and I are broken and devastated. My thoughts and prayers are with all who lost their lives, were injured or affected in anyway by yesterday’s events.
Statement: Kylie Jenner has said she was unaware people died at her partner Travis Barker’s Astroworld festival until after the show
‘I want to make it clear we weren’t aware of any fatalities until the news came out after the show and in no world would have continued filming or performing.
‘I am sending my deepest condolences to all the families during this difficult time and will be praying for the healing of everyone who has been impacted.’
The makeup mogul was reportedly unscathed after attending the night concert that saw several people hospitalised.
Jenner, who is expecting her second child by Scott, attended the concert at the Astroworld festival in Houston with her sister Kendall who was also said to be unhurt.
Kylie wrote: ‘Travis and I are broken and devastated. My thoughts and prayers are with all who lost their lives, were injured or affected in anyway by yesterday’s events’
Couple: The reality star, 24, sent her ‘deepest condolences’ to the families of the eight people who died during a stampede at the festival in Houston, Texas on Friday (pictured with Travis Barker in 2019)
‘Everyone is shocked and upset. Kylie and Kendall were in the audience, but they are not injured. Travis won’t be performing tonight. The concert is canceled,’ a source informed People magazine.
Scott was filmed continuing to perform after eight people were crushed to death, with one witness saying it was a ‘floor of bodies’.
Distressing video showed an unconscious male concertgoer being rushed to a medical assistance area after he passed out in the crush, which happened after people surged towards the stage shortly after 9.15pm CST Friday night.
At least 23 people were rushed to a hospital – 17 of whom were caught up in the worst of the incident, including a 10-year-old, police said.
Safe: The reality star was reportedly unscathed after attending her boyfriend Travis Scott’s Friday night concert (pictured in her hotel room before the show)
Onstage: Jenner is expecting her second child by Scott who is pictured performing the night of the tragedy at the Astroworld Festival in Houston, Texas
The Houston Fire Department reported that 11 victims were in cardiac arrest and needed CPR. None of those killed or injured have been identified.
Cops said 367 police officers and 241 security officers were working the event prior to the crush.
Speaking out for the first time since the deadly surge, Scott tweeted on Saturday around 12.15pm saying he’s ‘absolutely devastated’ and is ‘committed to working together with the Houston community,’ including the police department.
Although he completed his 75-minute performance, at one point the rapper was filmed calling for help. In another video he stood on a platform with his microphone while chaos unfolded beneath him.
Before: Kylie attended the concert with her sister Kendall Jenner who had posted an Instagram album from the festival grounds earlier on Friday
Unhurt: A source told People magazine that Kendall was also ‘not injured’
Duo: Jenner and Scott, who already share a three-year-old daughter called Stormi Webster, are pictured attending the 2018 Met Gala together
Meanwhile, Jenner was blasted online for posting a clip of an ambulance tending to the injured and dead as the chaos unfolded.
Other videos from the night showed distraught fans begging concert staff to halt the performance and help people escape the surge.
‘People are f***ing dying, I want to save somebody’s life,’ a man said as he climbed on a platform where a cameraman was filming the performance.
‘That’s somebody’s kid! I want to save them!’ he screamed – but to no avail. Astroworld Fest’s organizers offered their condolences to the families of those killed in a statement Saturday, and appealed for anyone with information to contact Houston Police.
Left: A graphic video showed an unconscious young man surrounded by Houston police officers as they guided him onto the ground in the middle of the crowd. Right: They rolled the man onto his side while shining lights into his eyes and Scott was seen in the background as he continued to perform from a platform feet above the crowd
Meanwhile, TMZ reported that a ‘key person’ connected to Astroworld said that Friday night was actually the result of a ‘targeted attack’ after ‘someone in the crowd went crazy and began injecting people with some sort of drug, which caused panic and then a surge’.
According to the Houston Chronicle Friday’s deadly incident was not the first time the concert’s producer Live Nation Worldwide and Live Nation Entertainment has come under scrutiny for OSHA safety and antitrust violations.
The live-entertainment company – which puts on 40,000 shows per year, according to its website, and which Billboard has cited as the world’s largest – has faced charges relating to 16 violations and has paid more than $83million in penalties.
Around 2pm hundreds of fans stormed the festival’s VIP entrance. About seven hours later the surge in front of the main stage killed eight people but the two events appear to be unrelated
Videos posted to Twitter captured a young man and woman climbing up to a platform where a cameraman was filming the performance and begging him to halt the concert. ‘People are f***ing dying, I want to save somebody’s life!’ the man screamed
Another clip showed the same man climbing up towards the cameraman joined by a woman pleading with the staff member to stop the concert.
Although inaudible, the cameraman was evidently trying to shoo the revelers off the platform and back into the crowd.
In yet another graphic video an unconscious young man was surrounded by Houston police officers who guided him onto the ground. They rolled the man onto his side while shining lights into his eyes.
Scott was seen in the background as he continued to perform from a platform feet above the crowd.
On Instagram a woman by the username @seannafaith claimed to be the person who climbed onto the cameraman’s platform to plead for help said that the crush was like a ‘Jenga tower topple,’ and added that fellow concertgoers were ‘drowning in people’.
She detailed climbing onto the platform, which ‘looked directly into the crowd,’ and told him that ‘there were people dying’.
‘I screamed over and over again. He wouldn’t even look in the direction,’ the Instagrammer wrote. ‘He became angry,’ she added before noting that the cameraman then called on ‘someone else’ to whisk her off the 15-foot platform.
‘The other man grabbed my arm and told me he would push me off the platform with no sides if I didn’t get down,’ she recalled.
‘Breathing became something only a few were capable of,’ she described, explaining that ‘the music continued’ as ‘the shoving got harder and harder…and people began to choke one another as the mass swayed’.
‘We knew there was a very big chance some of us would not make it out alive,’ she wrote in an Instagram post captioned: ‘I can’t write anymore. To all the lost souls tonight, you were robbed.’
The eight people who died have yet to be identified and police have asked those who have not heard from loved ones who attended the event to report to the local Wyndham Hotel where a ‘reunification center’ has been set up.
Police are reportedly working to identify the victims are are awaiting the medical examiner’s investigation to determine a cause of death.
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Travis Scott stopped multiple times during his 75-minute performance when he spotted fans in distress near the front of the stage and videos posted to social media captured the rap star asking security for help
Scott’s girlfriend Kylie Jenner – who is pregnant with the couple’s second child – posted this selfie to her Instagram from her hotel room before attending the concert with the pair’s three-year-old daughter Stormi
A statement was posted this statement to the Astroworld festival’s Instagram account. There was no caption and the comments were turned off
An estimated 50,000 people showed up to the festival after it was cancelled last year due to Covid.
But Friday night’s show was called off after chaos broke out just after 9pm local time, and the music festival’s second day was scrapped.
Thousands of festival goers surged towards the stage while Scott was performing at NRG Park in Houston, leading to a crush.
Jenner was also watching his set alongside the pair’s three-year-old daughter Stormi.
A video Jenner shared to her Instagram story panning the crowd indicated that she was not near the front.
The rap star reportedly stopped multiple times during his 75-minute performance when he spotted fans in distress near the front of the stage.
‘Security. Somebody help, jump in real quick,’ Scott said. The bass continued to rumble as he continued: ‘Somebody jump in. C’mon c’mon.’
While it’s unclear whether security was able to assist in time more footage posted to social media showed fans begging the concert staff to halt the show.
Before the surge even happened KTRK reported that hundreds of revelers – who did not appear to have tickets – stormed the event’s VIP entrance around 2pm local time on Friday.
Video showed the crowd of youngsters surging through metal detector arches, with at least one also seen jumping an adjoining fence.
Yet the stampede did not appear to be related to the multiple injuries Friday night and around seven hours later, at 9.15pm, the fatal surge took place, Houston Fire Chief Samuel Pena said, with people at the back pushing people in front of the main stage forward, crushing them against barriers.
Pena explained: ‘The crowd began to compress toward the front of the stage, and people began to panic.’
The fire chief said that the Houston Fire Department had 55 units at the festival and Houston Police Executive Assistant Chief Larry Satterwhite said he was on-duty at the festival along with 367 police officers and 241 security personnel.
A harrowing video taken by a bystander in the crowd captured an officer performing CPR on a man in cardiac arrest
Yet another disturbing clip showed a concertgoer receiving CPR on the back of an emergency vehicle as it rushed him through the crowd and away from the scene
In a video posted to Twitter an unconscious reveler was recorded being crowd-surfed towards security personnel who were seen carrying the young man’s body away
Harrowing footage on social media showed paramedics performing CPR on several people on the floor in the crowd. Seventeen people were taken to hospitals, with 11 of those in cardiac arrest, while others were treated at a field hospital in the park.
It is feared that hundreds, including children as young as 10, were injured. Officials in Texas confirmed eight people were killed but insisted that the cause of death was unknown and urged people not to ‘speculate’ about the chain of events that sparked the tragedy.
‘We had at least eight confirmed fatalities tonight and scores of individuals that were injured,’ Pena said.
‘The crowd began to compress towards the front of the stage, and that caused some panic, and it started causing some injuries. People began to fall out, become unconscious, and it created additional panic.’
In a disturbing livestream of the concert posted to Instagram people in the crowd can be heard screaming: ‘Help! Help me up Trav!’
Houston Police Chief Troy Finner said of the tragic night: ‘I think it’s very important that none of us speculate. Nobody has all the answers tonight. If you don’t have facts, if you don’t have evidence, I’m not going to speak against that. We have hurting families out here.’
The deadly surge was the most deaths at a US concert since the 2003 Station nightclub fire that killed 100 people in Rhode Island.
Eleven people died and about two dozen were injured in 1979 at a concert for The Who as thousands of fans tried to get into Cincinnati’s riverfront coliseum.
Houston Police Department’s Executive Assistant Chief Satterwhite gave a first-hand account of what he saw while on-duty: ‘It happened all at once. It seemed like it just happened… over the course of just a few minutes. Suddenly we had several people down on the ground, experiencing some type of cardiac arrest or some type of medical episode.’
Astroworld organisers cancelled the rest of the festival, scheduled to continue on Saturday.
‘Our hearts are with the Astroworld Festival family tonight – especially those we lost and their loved ones,’ they said on the event’s Instagram page. ‘We are focused on supporting local officials’.
Hours earlier Drake joined Scott on-stage – which was live-streamed by Apple Music – and posted photos to Instagram after the performance.
Before the surge even happened hundreds of revelers – who did not appear to have tickets – stormed the event’s VIP entrance around 2pm local time on Friday
The crowd of youngsters surging through metal detector arches, with at least one also seen jumping an adjoining fence, but the stampede did not appear to have any connection to the deadly surge that happened seven hours later
Multiple ambulances and other personnel were seen at NRG Park on Friday
An ambulance was seen making its way through the crowd during the Astroworld music festival in Houston
Travis Scott performing onstage during the third annual Astroworld Festival at NRG Park in Houston, Texas, on November 5, 2021
Scott performs at Day 1 of the Astroworld Music Festival at NRG Park on November 5, 2021
Other short videos and pictures Jenner shared to her Instagram story included a special trailer with Stormi’s name affixed to the door.
The three-year-old joined her mother in the crowd in another video that showed Scott’s high-energy performance, featuring incredible pyrotechnics.
The Houston Chronicle quoted Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo as calling it an ‘extremely tragic night’.
A medical examiner will investigate the cause of death at the festival. The deceased had not been identified as of early Saturday.
Officials set up a reunification centre at a hotel for family members who had not been able to reach relatives in attendance at the festival. The Houston Fire Department earlier said in a tweet that it was on scene after receiving reports of multiple civilian injuries.
Astroworld is rapper Scott’s music festival with tickets selling for $180 for general admission and $490 for ‘stargazer’ tickets.
Footage from NRG park circulating on social media showed scores of people rushing the gates with security at the gates unable to contain the flow.
Several people could be seen falling over, bringing down the metal detectors at the arena entrance but it is unclear if that incident was linked to the deaths.
However, authorities said more than 300 people were injured throughout the day at the event, including those with minor scrapes and bruises.
An ABC News reporter from Houston’s local affiliate, Mycah Hatfield, had reported via Twitter that chaos ensued during day one of the festival as soon as doors opened at 2p.
‘A stampede burst through the gates. Hundreds of people destroyed the VIP security entrance, bypassing the checkpoint. People were trampled. Some were detained,’ she wrote of the scene at NRG Park.
One person who was detained by security told ABC13: ‘I just really wanted to be inside the festival so bad.’
A handout photo made available by the Houston Fire Department showing Chief Samuel Pena and Harris County leaders briefing the media in regards to a stampede on the opening night of a music festival in Houston
Left: Jenner and Scott’s three-year-old daughter Stormi joined her mother in the crowd in another video that showed the rapper’s high-energy performance. They were not near the front and there is no suggestion either of them were hurt. Right: Jenner illustrated Stormi’s VIP experience by snapping a photo of her trailer
Astroworld is rapper Travis Scott’s sold-out music festival featuring numerous acts
SZA performs at Day 1 of the Astroworld Music Festival at NRG Park on Friday
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