After the deaths that occurred during the Astroworld festival in Houston, Texas, Epic has removed the Travis Scott “Out West” dance emote from Fortnite.
Epic went so far as to temporarily disable the Fortnite item shop’s Daily section, which rotates skins and other cosmetics and emotes on a regular basis. It’s believed that Scott’s emote was meant to be included in the latest update. The official Fortnite Status Twitter account later confirmed the Daily section’s removal but did not mention Scott or his emote by name.
On Friday, the first day of the Astroworld Festival, a crowd surged toward the front of the stage where Scott was performing. At least eight people were killed, with many more injured. Victims ranged in age from 14 to 27, with one victim’s age currently unknown. At least 25 people were transported to the hospital. The total number of attendees reportedly neared 50,000.
Footage from the event was shared on social media. One video showed a woman climbing on a camera operator’s platform to beg for help and another video shows concertgoers towards the back of the crowd chanting “stop the show.”
The event continued for approximately 30 minutes after a mass casualty declaration was made. It’s currently unclear how aware Scott was of what was happening in the crowd watching his performance. Scott briefly stopped his performance at 9:42 p.m. when he noticed a person in the crowd had passed out. Scott can be heard directing attention to the passed-out person and asking the crowd to move away from them. Video from the event shows what appears to be security guards in reflective jackets arriving at the spot.
The second day of the show scheduled for November 6 was later canceled, and Scott released a statement saying he was “absolutely devastated” by the events of the day before.