Astroworld festival tragedy already among deadliest US concerts in history
Here’s a look back at how some of America’s greatest concert tragedies unfolded.
10. Free Festival of the Altamont Speedway, 1969
It has been hailed as the Woodstock of the West, along with the Rolling Stones, Santana, Nash & Young, and the Grateful Dead. But an intoxicating combination of drugs, overcrowding and a biker gang serving as security turned this rock concert at a racetrack near Tracy, Calif., Into astonishing violence that resulted in four deaths. on December 6, 1969. In a closing act by the Rolling Stones, teenage Meredith Curley Hunter, Jr. was stabbed and beaten to death by a member of the Hells Angels working in security after Hunter began to agitate a revolver erratically near the scene. Two more people have died in hit-and-run crashes and one person drowned in a canal after taking LSD, the Lodi News-Sentinel reported.
9. Alrosa Villa nightclub, 2004
Former Pantera “Dimebag” guitarist Darrell Abbott was murdered in a mass shooting on December 8, 2004 by a 25-year-old participant who walked onto the Columbus, Ohio nightclub concert stage. The assailant shot Abbott in the head before opening fire on the audience of 200, killing three more, The Columbus Dispatch reported.
TRAGIC STORY: Astroworld Festival is the latest in a series of global concert tragedies.
8. Indiana State Fair, 2011
Just before an outdoor concert in Indianapolis on August 13, 2011 with country band Sugarland, gusts of wind from an overwhelming thunderstorm collapsed the temporary roof of the stage onto the waiting crowd. Pinned under twisted metal, seven people died and 58 were injured, the Indianapolis Star reported.
7. Astroworld Festival, 2021
Shortly before Travis Scott’s 9 p.m. performance on Friday night, a chaotic crowd began to rush to the stage, crushing people against the security gates. Several people fell under the crowd as participants choked and struggled to breathe. So far, eight people have been confirmed to have died in a mass event that sent 17 people to hospitals, at least 11 of whom suffered cardiac arrest.
SAFETY FAULTS: Astroworld festival concert producer has a history of OSHA violations
An image from KTRK video shows an aerial view of the NRG stadium during the Astroworld festival at NRG Park on Friday, November 5, 2021. Eight people died and dozens more injured after a sold-out crowd swarmed during the event. of rapper Travis Scott’s late performance Friday.
Courtesy / KTRK
6. Concert “The Who”, 1979
During their tour of the United States, British rock group The Who was scheduled to perform in Cincinnati on December 3, 1979 in front of a sold-out stadium with 18,000 fans. As people waited to enter, the group’s soundcheck was confused by the crowd outside as the start of the show. The resulting stampede of anxious fans killed 11 people and injured 26 others.
5. Gulliver’s Nightclub, 1974
A fire that was started to cover up a heist at a bowling alley in Port Chester, New York, spread to a nearby nightclub hosting a concert by rock band The Creation. Although lead singer George Chase calmly announced that there was a fire and asked everyone to come out, the crowd of 200 struggled to leave the building as flames and smoke quickly filled the underground club. The blaze left 24 people dead and 32 injured, The New York Times reported.
4. Route 91 Harvest Festival, 2017
The deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history took place on October 1, 2017, when Stephen Paddock, 64, fired more than 1,000 bullets at participants of the Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas since a 32nd floor window of the Mandalay Bay Hotel. The sound of the live shot was first confused by fans for the performance of country singer Jason Aldean. Sixty people have died and more than 400 have been shot and wounded, with the total number injured rising to 867 in the ensuing panic, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.
3. The station nightclub, 2003
Pyrotechnics from the stage ignited the sound deadening foam of a nightclub in Warwick, Rhode Island, during a performance by rock band Great White. The fire quickly accelerated, burning everything combustible in the club. Smoke filled the room, sparking a stampede that killed 100 people and injured more than 200, the Associated Press reported.
2. Beverly Hills Supper Club, 1977
A wedding, cabaret show and food event collided in the third deadliest nightclub fire in U.S. history. On May 28, 1977, a fire broke out at this club in Southgate, Kentucky, during a performance of Hollywood actor John Davidson. More than 3,000 people were in the building, far exceeding the occupancy limit. The fire killed 165 people, reported the Cincinnati Enquirer.
1. Rhythm club, 1940
One of the worst building fires in US history occurred in Natchez, Mississippi during the Jim Crow era on April 23, 1940. The Rhythm Club hosted jazz musician Walter Barnes and his Royal Creolians in front of an audience of over 700 people. A fire near the entrance quickly ignited the decorative Spanish moss on the ceiling sprayed with a flammable pesticide. Most of the club’s windows had been boarded up to prevent people from listening to the concert, trapping the audience inside. More than 200 people died in the blaze, many were burned to death. All of the victims were African-American. Authorities struggled to identify the remains and many were buried in mass graves, Democrat Natchez reported.
