Eight people have died during a large crowd-surge at rapper Travis Scott’s Astroworld music festival, with dozens more being injured. Lives lost include a 14-year-old boy and a student at the local University of Dayton.
The originally two-day event, named after Scott’s 2018 album of the same name, had over 50,000 thousand guests attending in Houston, Texas. Scott would be the sole performer the night of Friday, Nov. 5, followed by a full suite of acts the next day. Saturday’s performances were intended to include Lil Baby, 21 Savage, Chief Keef, Baby Keem, and Earth, Wind, and Fire.
Travis Scott’s set began around 9 p.m. where the tens of thousands of fans were rushing towards the stage, getting gradually more and more chaotic.
“Within the first 30 seconds of the first song, people began to drown-in other people,” said attendee Seanna Faith, who wrote about her experience at the event in a Twitter post. This chaos continued until around 9:30 p.m., where the crowd started to trample people and get truly out of hand.
“We begged security to help us, for the performer to see us and know something was wrong. None of that came.” Faith continued.
She then made her way onto the stage in order to try to get a cameraman to help, which he refused before she left the stage. Luckily Faith was able to notify members of the medical team, potentially preventing more lives from being lost.
At one point during his set, an ambulance arrived at the venue to help the victims. This was met with Travis Scott temporarily pausing his show and wondering why the vehicles had arrived, before starting the next song. Other videos are taken from the event show fans dancing on top of ambulances, and even Scott looking directly at an unconscious fan being taken out by security.
These deaths hit Dayton especially hard as one of the victims, Franco Patiño, was a student at the University of Dayton studying mechanical engineering technology. Other victims include 14-year-old John Hilgert, 23-year-old Rodolfo Peña, and 16-year-old Brianna Rodriguez. These deaths are tragic and social media has been flooded with support for their families during these difficult times.
“My prayers go out to the families and all those impacted by what happened at Astroworld Festival” Travis Scott wrote in one of several statements he has made since that night. The effects this will have on his career remain to be seen, as many blame the artist for not stopping the show to avoid any more injuries. However, it is certain that what occurred at Astroworld on November 5, 2021, will have long-reaching effects on how crowds are handled during live music performances.
*Since this article was published, it has been reported that many are still fighting for their life after the tragic event. Scott is also refunding all Astroworld attendees along with canceling a future performance.
Alex Cutler
Intern