Kanye West dedicates Sunday Service to victims of Astroworld tragedy
Kanye West has dedicated the latest iteration of Sunday Service to “the loved ones of Astroworld”.
Over the weekend, at least eight people died – with hundreds more reportedly injured – in a “mass-casualty” crowd crush at Travis Scott‘s Astroworld festival in Houston.
West’s latest Sunday Service took place on November 7, and was livestreamed to YouTube, Triller and REVOLT TV. Ahead of the stream, a message read: “Sunday Service dedication to the loved ones of Astroworld”.
In addition, in the description of the stream on YouTube, REVOLT wrote, “let’s get back to a peaceful state of mind with this service dedicated to the lost lives at Travis Scott’s Astroworld.”
Watch the full stream, which includes renditions of ‘DONDA’ cuts like ‘Hurricane’ and ‘Moon’, below.
Following the news of the tragedy, Scott took to social media to make two separate statements: a brief, written one on Twitter and a longer video posted to Instagram.
“We’re actually working right now to identify the families so we can help assist them during this tough time,” he said in the latter.
“My fans really mean the world to me. I always just really want to leave them with a positive experience. Anytime I can make out what’s going on, I stop the show and help them get the help they need.”
Punters at the event have shared various accounts of what happened, including posting videos of people asking security and camera crew for help only for staff to appear to ignore them.
Experts have also weighed in on the tragedy, with some arguing that event organisers “weren’t prepared for the crowd they were going to get”. One expert, who remained anonymous, told Rolling Stone that they “don’t even want to speculate how difficult it’s going to be” for rap festivals in particular to obtain insurance in future.