Astroworld: Travis Scott posts wrong number for traumatised victims to get help

Travis Scott pledged to help Astroworld survivors, but ended up directing them to a wrong number

Travis Scott promised to help survivors of the Astroworld festival who were left traumatised by the deadly crowd surge, and claimed to have posted a number for a nationwide counseling service to his Instagram page.

But rather than being taken to the hotline for the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) as intended, callers were directed to a federal agency instead, where they were asked random questions about social security and grocery rewards programmes.

The error was noticed by BuzzFeed, who contacted Mr Scott’s media representatives on Wednesday morning.

The rapper’s Instagram page, which has 43.9 million followers, was updated with NAMI’s correct details soon afterwards.

Travis Scott had corrected the NAMI number on his Instagram page after being contacted by media (Instagram)

Eight people between the ages of 14 and 27 died at the event in Houston during a crowd surge towards the stage while the rapper was performing.

One survivor, Seanna Faith, who climbed onto a camera platform during Mr Scott’s performance to beg staff to call off the concert noticed the error when she tried to call the hotline.

Seanna Faith tried to reach a mental health hotline by calling the number in Travis Scott’s Instagram bio (Instagram)

Mr Scott has promised to pay for all of the victims’ funerals, and partnered with online counsellors BetterHelp to offer a month’s free therapy anyone affected by the tragedy. The offer of free online therapy has been met with some backlash already.

“If you watched your friends die at the Travis Scott concert you get one free month of BetterHelp,” wrote one person on Twitter.

“Is he going to pay the long-term costs associated with trauma related mental illness?” another asked.

“PTSD, anxiety, and depression aren’t simply remedied with a ‘let’s talk about our feelings’ session.”

Scott and festival promoters Live Nation are being sued by dozens of survivors and bereaved families.