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Eight people died in a fatal crowd surge at the Astroworld Music Festival in Houston, Texas, and an Ohio man who witnessed the tragedy is speaking out.
Ivan Bosnjak, of Boardman, recorded cell phone video of the chaos when he attended the festival on Friday, November 5. He spoke with Cleveland’s Fox 8 I-Team about the “scary time” with “not enough security” staffed to handle the stampede. “Right when that music hit, it was instant compression, compression of your chest,” Bosnjak recalled to Fox 8. “You felt the wave of people push on you. You felt like you were being crushed between everyone.”
The mass stampede also sent 17 people to the hospital, including 11 in cardiac arrest at the time, according to previous reports. Lawsuits have been filed in connection with the fatal music festival. Astroworld Festival previously released a statement, saying: “We are focused on supporting local officials however we can. With that in mind the festival will no longer be held on Saturday. As authorities mentioned in their press conference earlier, they are looking into a series of cardiac arrests that took place. If you have any relevant information on this, please reach @HoustonPolice. Thank you to our partners at the Houston Police Department, Fire Department, and NRG Park for their response and support.” Headliner Travis Scott, who pledged to cover funeral expenses, said in a statement that he’s “absolutely devastated by what took place” at the festival, and will lend his “total support” to Houston authorities investigating the incident.