Kylie Jenner responded on Sunday to the tragic events at Houston’s Astroworld music festival in which eight were killed and many injured after a crowd surge. “I just 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,” she wrote on her Instagram stories. The one-time youngest self-made billionaire has faced criticism for being slow to remove videos of her boyfriend Travis Scott’s performance at the festival, during which the surge occurred.
Her “thoughts and prayers are with all who lost their lives, were injured, or affected in any way by yesterday’s events,” she added. She also voiced support “for Travis who I know cares deeply for his fans and the Houston community.”
Jenner and Scott are currently expecting their second child together. Jenner attended Astroworld’s first night with Stormi, her three-year-old daughter with Scott, and her sister Kendall, according to Insider. Scott is the founder of the Astroworld festival, which began in 2018.
Scott also responded to the incident on social media via a seven-part video posted on his Instagram stories late Saturday night. The video features a black-and-white filter and lighting that occasionally washes out the image. In it, Scott rubs his forehead and uses the word “devastated.”
“My fans really mean the world to me,” he said. “I always want to leave them with a positive experience.” He added, “I could never imagine the severity of the situation.”
Due to the ephemeral nature of IG Stories, we are embedding a YouTube video as captured by BlackTeaBlog. The edit at the 1:06 mark also appears in Scott’s original post.
Despite his message, the prevailing sentiment online on Sunday did not seem to be in Scott’s favor. The hashtag #canceltravisscott was trending during the day, as were the names of other performers who in the past stopped their shows when they noticed audience members in distress. (Scott did at times pause to ask for help, a concertgoer told the New York Times.) Nonetheless, older clips of Scott antagonizing fans surfaced, as did reminders of his 2015 arrest at Chicago’s Lollapalooza for disorderly conduct after he encouraged fans to climb security fences, along with a second arrest in Arkansas in 2017 for a similar charge.
Adding an urban legend element to the Astroworld story is the “narrative,” as Houston Police Department Chief Troy Finner put it, concerning reports of a person injecting concertgoers with drugs during the show. Finner spoke about a security officer who felt a prick in his neck and went unconscious. The events surrounding Friday’s tragedy remain under investigation.
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