Astroworld was the name of a now-defunct Houston amusement park. Then it was the name of rapper Travis Scott’s album. Now it’s evidently the name of a rap festival in the parking lot of NRG stadium (close to where the Astroworld theme park used to be) where eight people just died:
At least eight people are dead and dozens more injured after a sold-out crowd of roughly 50,000 surged during rapper Travis Scott’s performance late Friday at the Astroworld Festival outside NRG Park, overwhelming security forces and resulting in one of the deadliest concerts in U.S. history.
As Scott’s performance started shortly after 9 p.m., the chaotic crowd seemingly swallowed everyone in it, Instagram user SeannaFaith wrote.
“The rush of people became tighter and tighter. .. Breathing became something only a few were capable. The rest were crushed or unable to breathe in the thick hot air,” she wrote. “It was like watching a Jenga tower topple. Person after person were sucked down…. You were at the mercy of the wave.”
“We begged security to help us, for the performer to see us and know something was wrong,” she continued. “None of that came, we continued to drown.”
Then, one person fell. And another.
“We had a mass casualty event here at Astroworld,” Houston Fire Chief Samuel Peña said.
Seventeen people were taken to the hospital, 11 of whom Peña described as being in cardiac arrest. Eight are confirmed dead. Some of the victims might be children.
Sounds quite similar to the tragic 1979 Who concert in Cincinnati, where 11 people died. It seems the lessons from that have been forgotten.
The original Astroworld park also had a reputation as being deadlier than other parks in the Six Flags family. Two workers were killed during construction in 1968, and a maintenance worker was killed after being struck by a roller coaster car.
There’s was also some weird scheme to build a virtual Astroworld theme park on blockchain technology. It always seemed more like buzzword bingo than a business plan, and I don’t think much has come of it.
Tags: Astroworld, Houston, Texas, Travis Scott
Wonder how much virtual fun you can have in a virtual theme park…
The thing you have to understand is that NRG Park, the Astrodome, and the old Astroworld site are basically in the ghetto. That’s what did Astroworld in, the ease of access to ‘unpleasant’ folks who could fade in and out easily.
The stampede does not appear to be what caused the deaths — it appears the deaths caused the stampede. There are videos of kids unconscious on the ground amidst the crowd. They appear to be having seizures. Authorities are saying 8 cardiac arrests (!!!) — trampling doesn’t cause that.
Probably bad dope, ecstasy pills cut with methamphetamine or fentanyl. People started dropping from OD’s, the crowd flipped out and it was off to the races.
Yes, the lessons were forgotten. Remembering bad things that happened in the past, and taking action to avoid them happening again, makes people feel bad. And the avoidance of feeling bad is the principal motivation of all human beings.
Fascinating rumor-mongering on social media. Comparisons to Hieronymus Bosch paintings, portal to hell, human sacrifice to Moloch, the works.