This past Friday Travis Scott’s Astroworld Festival turned into a catastrophe when eight people were killed and 25 people were hospitalized. The festival took place at NGR Park in Houston, Texas. Astroworld Festival began in 2018 and is a two-day event headlining Travis Scott and other artists. The entertainment company, Live Nation, sponsored the Astroworld Festival.
The lineup consisted of SZA, Drake, Roddy Ricch, Toro y Moi and Master P. The festival was also supposed to include 21 Savage, Tame Impala, Bad Bunny, Wind & Fire, Young Thug and more. Following the festival SZA, spoke out afterwards about how heartbroken and speechless she was about the incident. Drake posted on Instagram Monday stating that he’s been trying to wrap his mind around it for the past two days. Roddy Ricch, who performed earlier on Friday announced on Saturday that he will be donating his pay to the victims’ families.
People began arriving in the afternoon with reports stating that at around 2 p.m. a stampede of around a hundred people destroyed the V.I.P entrance by bursting through the gates and past the checkpoint; thus proving security itself was not prepared for the attendees. Following this, some people were either trampled or detained. The concert started around 9:30 p.m and at that point there were around 50,000 people in the crowd. Testimonies from attendees stated they had no room to move and were being pushed and squeezed.
Attendees described that once Travis appeared on stage, all hell broke loose and the crowd began to run towards the stage trampling anyone and anything in their way and, in the first thirty minutes of his set, an ambulance arrived. After the concert a video of fans jumping on top and proceeding to dance on the ambulance making it almost impossible for it to evacuate circulated on social media. There were even testimonies that Travis himself noticed the ambulance and even stopped the show for a second to make a comment on it before returning back to his set.
Travis made a statement on his Instagram stating “Anytime I could make out anything that was going on, I’d stop the show and help them get the help they need… I could never imagine the severity of the situation.”
Travis Scott has a history of violence at his concerts. In 2017, Travis encouraged an attendee at his show in New York City to jump off the second-floor balcony and in 2013 at Lollapalooza, he was arrested for allegedly encouraging fans to jump over the barrier and get on stage with him. At the 2019 Astroworld Festival, three people were also trampled and hospitalized as thousands of fans rushed to get in and the show continued on,
Attendees have stated that there were barricades near the stage that were used to divide the crowd but these barriers ended up compacting the space and not allowing for any movement, breath or escape. On top of this the medical staff was overwhelmed by the amount of injured, passed out and trampled people and unprepared to respond. The issues were exacerbated because Travis Scott and his team did not have an accurate count of who was at the concert as many people broke in without a ticket.
There have been multiple videos released showing the crowd trying to get Travis’s attention, begging the crew to stop the show, exclaiming that people were dying.
Throughout this the show continued with Drake eventually joining Travis Scott on stage and performing until 10:15 p.m. The show itself ran for an hour and fifteen minutes with Travis pausing the show at least twice to check on his fans. Authorities stated that there were around 528 Huston police officers at the venue and around 755 private security agents that were all informed about escalating problems around 9:30 p.m; with the show ending 40 minutes after they were given this information.
The show resulted in eight deaths including: John Hilgert, age 14; Brianna Rodriguiez, 16; Rodolfo Angel Peña, 23; Axel Acosta, 21; Franco Patino, 21; Jacob Jurinek, 20; Madison Dubiski, 23; and Danish Baig, 27.
In addition to the deaths, twenty-five people were taken to the hospital, five of which were minors. Victims suffered from cardiac arrest with a ten year old boy and his father remaining in critical condition. Axel Acosta’s family attorney stated that the victims, including Axel, all likely died from “compressive asphyxiation,” meaning they could not breath from all of the weight on them.
This isn’t the first time that Live Nations faced legal challenges. In 2018 they were in a lawsuit because of the shooting at Route 91 Harvest Music Festival in Las Vegas that killed 58 people and a year after a lawsuit was filed by the guitarist from Journey claiming his wife was violently assaulted by one of their hired security guards. The lawsuit for Astroworld states that the security guards hired by Live Nation were ignoring the attendees as they were begging for help. Currently, Live Nation has a relief fund to help those in need with monetary grants and is offering mental health resources.
None of the attendees deserved what occurred, and many still children. What happened at Astroworld was truly a devastating tragedy that impacted so many young and innocent people for the rest of their life.
Due to the tragedy that happened, Travis has offered refunds and even dropped out of his next gig. Travis also posted an apology video that has been heavily criticized. As expected, numerous lawsuits have already been filed by family members of those who were injured and killed. These suits are mostly against Travis Scott, his crew and the organizers, Live Nation, placing them all responsible for the crowd surge.