Astroworld Joins Tragic History of Concert Crowd Disasters

At least eight people are dead and many more injured after a crowd rushed the stage at rapper Travis Scott's music festival Astroworld in Houston.

Authorities are investigating the cause of the "mass casualty event," which unfolded at an outdoor performance by Scott at the festival on Friday night.

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner called for law enforcement, festival organizer Live Nation and the venue to explain "how the event got out of control leading to the deaths and injuries of several attendees."

The deaths at Astroworld Festival call to mind other rare but traumatic incidents at concerts and festivals in which crowding or other factors contributed to dangerous conditions for some attendees.

November 2021: ABBA tribute concert

The Astroworld incident comes just days after two people died at a music event in Sweden.

As audiences waited in a concert hall near Stockholm for an ABBA tribute concert to start on Tuesday night, an elderly man either jumped or fell down seven floors and landed on two people below. He and one of the people he hit died, while the other was taken to a hospital with injuries.

The actual band, which on Friday released its first new album in four decades, briefly delayed promotion of its highly anticipated comeback tour in light of the tragedy.

December 2016: Ghost Ship Fire

On Dec. 2, 2016 a fire broke out at an underground electronic music party in an Oakland, Calif., warehouse-turned-artist collective known as the Ghost Ship. The fire — the source of which is still unknown — trapped people on a second floor, killing 36.

Officials later found that the building had no smoke detectors or sprinklers, and contained numerous extension cords and large quantities of flammable materials. Derick Almena, its primary leaseholder, was sentenced to 12 years in prison earlier this year — though will serve only one-and-a-half years of in-home confinement, wearing an ankle monitor.

The city of Oakland reached a $32.7 million settlement with fire victims last year. Of that amount, $23.5 million went to families of people who died, and $9.2 million went to Sam Maxwell, who was the last person to escape the fire and suffered life-changing injuries.