A 67-year-old man collapsed at Texas Eclipse Festival on Sunday and was declared dead at the scene.
A 67-year-old man has passed away at Reveille Peak Ranch during Texas Eclipse Festival, which announced that it would end early today due to potential forecasts of extreme weather.
At the time of writing, the man has not been identified, and neither Texas Eclipse’s organizers nor Burnet, Texas authorities, have not responded to EDM Identity’s request for comment. In the Texas Eclipse 2024 Festival Fam Facebook group, his daughter, who said she has accompanied him to numerous festivals since 2007, recounted that he collapsed at the hilltop Alamo camp and passed away around 4:10am CT on Sunday.
In a Reddit post, she said that Sheriffs arrived before onsite medics did. “It took festival staff/medical 40 minutes to find me and my father in an absolute medical emergency,” she wrote. “The sheriffs were on site before medical staff because we called 911. No one could find any help, anyone with walkie talkie, any medical or staff at all. We were screaming for help. It was chaos. It was a nightmare.”
In another comment, she wrote: “After waiting 40 minutes on that mountain trail, when the medical staff showed up the life saving equipment they arrived with wasn’t sufficient, the AED they had was missing the pads. This was a critical failure.”
“We are deeply saddened that a patron who attended Texas Eclipse festival passed away at an area hospital. Any loss of life is tragic, and our thoughts are with the loved ones of the deceased,” the festival said in a statement to EDM Identity.
Disco Donnie took to X (formerly Twitter) to dispute some of the claims about the lack of medical personnel on-site in a tweet that has since been deleted. He stated that there were seven medical tents at Texas Eclipse, that 911 calls go to the Sheriff’s Department before medical is called, and that their on-site medical team responded in four minutes based on their logs.
The Daily Trib reported that the deceased was 67 years old, and that he was airlifted to Ascension Seton Hospital in Williamson County.
Many Texas Eclipse Festival attendees reported enjoying themselves at the gathering without incident on social media. For others, however, extreme car searches, Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliance issues, and lack of promised amenities apparently complicated their experience.
Following forecasts of high winds, hail, and thunderstorms, organizers announced that the festival would end early on Monday morning and asked attendees to gather their things to leave as soon as possible. Those on the festival grounds reported clear enough skies to see the totality (the point at which the moon completely covered the sun) when it started at 1:27pm CT. Performances by the likes of Charlotte de Witte, LP Giobbi, Tycho, and Ivy Lab will not take place as planned due to the cancellation.
EDM Identity will provide additional information surrounding Texas Eclipse Festival as well as Sunday’s fatality as it becomes available.
This story has been updated to include the recent statement from Disco Donnie and Texas Eclipse Festival.
