Friday, November 5th marked one of the most devastating concert incidents in United States history. During day one of the renowned Astroworld festival, eight people were pronounced dead and over 300 people were injured during a crowd surge. Two more victims were reported dead on November 12th and 15th. Sixteen-year-old Brianna Rodriguez and nine-year-old Ezra Blount were among the youngest to pass away after their hospitalizations. The incident took place at the NRG Park in Houston, Texas at around 9:30 pm that Friday evening. Over 50,000 people attended the concert, some of which were Cypress Ranch high school students.

How it Happened

It is unclear what caused the incident. When Travis came out from backstage, the crowd began to charge towards the front of the stage causing many attendees in the front to be crushed. It is suspected that Drake’s surprise appearance at around 10 pm worsened the crowd surge.

“Nobody was ready for it, “said Joshua Harris.

 It was people’s rush to the front of the stage along with the compactness of the crowd that disoriented various attendees and eventually caused them to pass out. 

“I was having a lot of fun until I saw a lot of people getting carried out. Even my friend passed out, so it was not fun at that point, it became really chaotic,” said Abigail Mujica.

How it was Handled

Many videos are circulating on social media that show Some of the chaos that ensued at the Astroworld music festival. Questions were raised about security after scenes of people trampling over each other and pushing down fences went viral on social media the days following the event. Cypress Ranch students in attendance reached the consensus that there wasn’t enough security to deal with the magnitude of people at the concert. 

The lack of security which allowed the crowd surge spelled out problems for the medical staff in attendance with reports of them not being able to get to people who had passed out or gotten injured in the crowd.

“Paramedics couldn’t get to the scene, everything was understaffed, people kept sneaking in, so yeah, it wasn’t prepped well,” said Manal Saad.

All of this ultimately contributed to the hundred injuries and the 10 deaths that took place at the festival. 

Aftermath

In the immediate aftermath of the events at  Astroworld, it was announced that the rest of the festival would be canceled. 

 “I was really upset, I was feeling a lot of different emotions because I did spend five hundred dollars on my ticket. So I was like okay… that’s a problem, and I also missed out on seeing some really good artists, but at the end of the day I knew it needed to be done because people died which was really sad,” said Abigail Mujica.

Later that week it was announced that anyone who had bought tickets to Astroworld would be refunded for their ticket. 

Travis Scott and the event organizers, Live Nation, are also expected to be subject to civil suits in the coming weeks with some news outlets. A vast majority of the lawsuits consist of  “gross negligence,” “suffering bodily injuries” and the “riot and violence” that occurred during the concert. Not only were lawsuits issued against Travis Scott, but surprise performer Drake who allegedly incited the crowd in conjunction with Travis.

Sources:

https://www.vulture.com/2021/11/astroworld-festival-tragedy-travis-scott-explainer.html

https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/music/2021/11/08/travis-scott-astroworld-what-happened-concert-festival-victims-deaths/6336863001/

https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/06/us/houston-astroworld-festival/index.html

https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/06/us/houston-astroworld-festival/index.html