
BUENOS AIRES – Two people remain hospitalized after getting caught in the crush of the crowd over the weekend at an Indio Solari concert that possibly drew more than 400,000 people to the Argentine city of Olavarria, officials said Monday.
Antonella Falcon and Daniel Esteban Robles are in the intensive care unit and “evolving positively,” Olavarria Municipal Hospital said in a statement posted on the city’s website.
Two people died early Sunday after the crowd surged when fireworks were set off during the concert in Olavarria, located about 360 kilometers (some 224 miles) northeast of Buenos Aires.
“The other patients have been discharged already,” the hospital said.
Prosecutors continue investigating the incident at the concert, which drew roughly 180,000 more people than the expected capacity of 170,000.
The size of the crowd became so large that Solari asked fans near the stage to move back and avoid crushing those in front of them, but the crowd overwhelmed the security detail, causing a stampede and pressing against people in the first rows, where the two men died.
On Sunday night, prosecutors interviewed the 68-year-old Solari, who had been away from the stage for a year due to Parkinson’s disease.
The singer and former frontman of legendary band Patricio Rey y sus Redonditos de Ricota denied that concert organizer En Vivo Group S.A., a company run by Marcos and Matias Peuscovich, was responsible for the incident.
Solari told investigators that he began calling for calm early in the show after spotting brawls in the audience, media reports said.
Municipal officials, however, blamed the organizers for the incidents inside La Colmena, a property owned by En Vivo Group S.A.
Solari has a huge following in Argentina and this is not the first time that one of his concerts ended with fatalities.
In 1997, a concert featuring Solari and his band, one of the most popular groups in Argentina at the time, was banned because of previous violent incidents.