What caused the deadly scenes at Astroworld
Warning: This story contains graphic content which may distress some readers.
What is Astroworld?
Astroworld is an annual festival held by 30-year-old rapper Travis Scott in his native Houston, Texas.
The festival, named after his critically acclaimed album, has been running for three years after being founded in 2018 (there was no 2020 show due to the pandemic).
The festival sees young rap fans from all over the country come to enjoy their favourite artists, but the 2021 event was vastly different to the years prior.
What happened?
On the first night of the festival on Friday night in Houston, the festival began with over an estimated 50,000 people in attendance.
During the course of the evening as Travis Scott took to the stage as the final performer of the night, the crowd began to be crushed by each other.
Fans were squeezed in so tightly between other festival-goers and a series of barricades that they could not breathe or move their arms.
As fans started to jump around and dance to the music, people began to fall to the ground and become trapped under a sea of bodies.
Fans became compressed towards the front of the stage, as people began to pass out from a lack of oxygen, as paramedics were unable to get to everyone who needed help due to the overwhelming capacity of the crowd.
Houston police have reported that at least 8 people have died in the mass casualty event, and hundreds more people were gravely injured.
How did this happen?
Throughout the beginning of the festival, people began posting photos and videos to social media of people storming the barricades and by-passing security to make it into the event.
Fans recounted their time trying to make it into the venue, saying they noticed many people come into the event who didn’t have tickets or the required wristbands to the sold-out concert.
Fans just broke through the fence to get into #AstroWorldpic.twitter.com/mpi70ZzTOs
— XXL Magazine (@XXL) November 5, 2021
As fans knocked down the barricades, many got stuck under the sea of people storming the venue.
Many people believe that as people without tickets pushed their way into the show, the venue quickly rose to maximum capacity, and was filled with people at an unsafe number.
Why did the concert continue?
As the majority of the injuries and deaths happened while Travis Scott, the main performer of the night, was on the stage, many in the crowd tried to start a chant of “Stop the show”.
Fans urged and pleaded with Travis Scott to stop the #ASTROFEST show amid the mass casualty event. He continues to sing. pic.twitter.com/xsBdX2Ew3x
— Drama For The Girls (@dramaforthegirl) November 6, 2021
Due to the overwhelming noise of the concert production, these cries went underheard by the performer and by concert officials.
Two concert-goers even climbed on a platform where a cameraman was filming the event, as they tried to get someone to notice what was happening.
The young woman, Seanna, posted her detailed recount of the event to her Instagram, as another person captured her pleas to the cameraman, saying “Someone is dead in there”.
“There is somebody dead.”
“Stop the show. Stop the show. Stop the show.”
And the #AstroWorld show continuedpic.twitter.com/uHJKGiSosX— David Leavitt (@David_Leavitt) November 6, 2021
In her recount, Seanna said that as she desperately asked the cameraman to do something, the cameraman told her “he would push me off the 15ft platform if I didn’t get down” because “they were live-streaming the show”.
At one point throughout the show, Travis stops performing and says “Who asked me to stop?” before ignoring the cries of his audience and continuing the concert.
Has anything like this happened before?
Yes. At the 2019 Astroworld festival, three people were trampled and hospitalised as fans rushed to the entrance of the music event.
Crowd crushings have long been deadly and led to casualties, as 11 people died in 1979 as fans scrambled to enter an Ohio venue for a concert by The Who.
At Sydney’s Olympic Stadium, teenager Jessica Michalik died after being crushed in a mosh pit at the Big Day Out festival in 2001.
What now?
Houston officials are investigating the events that led to the devastating concert, as Travis Scott says he is “absolutely devastated” by what happened at Astroworld.
Following the deaths of 8 people, the second day of Astroworld was cancelled and the investigation remains ongoing.
Image credits: Getty Images / Twitter