Travis Scott Concert Crowd Crush

Overview

Travis Scott Concert Crowd Crush refers to a deadly crowd surge that occurred at rapper Travis Scott's Astroworld Festival on November 5th, 2021, in which eight people died and over 300 were injured when the audience rushed the stage. The incident became a subject of viral discussions on social media, with users criticizing Scott and the festival promoter Live Nation, expressing condolences and sharing videos and witness accounts from the concert.

Background

On November 5th, 2021, Astroworld Festival, an annual two-day music festival run by American rapper Travis Scott, began in Houston, Texas, at NRG Park. On that day, possible signs of overcrowding were first reported^[1][2] before the start of the event as a crowd of people pushed their way into the entrance gate to get into the venue, with some people getting trampled (video shown below). Approximately 50,000 people were estimated to attend, while the venue capacity was 200,000.

At 8:39 p.m, shortly before the start time of Travis Scott's performance, attendee Jorlyn Santana shot a video of people hopping over barricades to escape overcrowding.^[3] The deadly incident occurred between 9:11 and 9:38 p.m., with most fatalities likely occurring after 9:30 p.m. According to the Houston fire chief, "at approximately 9 o’clock, 9:15, the crowd began to compress toward the front of the stage," which "caused some panic and started causing some injuries." At 9:23, attendee Ellen Elise Evans filmed concertgoers climbing speaker rigging to escape the crush. At 9:28, attendee Eric Daniels filmed staff performing chest compressions on an unresponsive person in the crowd.

At 9:30, concertgoers reported that an ambulance was moving through the crowd. Travis Scott acknowledged the ambulance and called for the crowd to make a room, but continued performing. At 9:38 p.m., Houston officials reported a "mass casualty incident" at the concert, with 17 people transferred to hospitals.

At 9:42 p.m. Scott stopped performing a song to warn that help was needed "somebody passed out up here." According to officials, the concert finally ended at 10:10 p.m. after Travis Scott and Drake performed "Sicko Mode."

The crowd surge at the concert resulted in the deaths of eight people, with 25 others evacuated to local hospitals, among them, 11 people were reportedly in a state of cardiac arrest. More than 300 people were treated for injuries at a field hospital at the festival.^[4]

Developments

Travis Scott's Statements

On November 6th, 2021, Travis Scott posted^[5] a response apology video in which he expressed condolences to families of those who died at the concert and thanked Houston PD and Fire Department for their response. The tweet received over 42,800 retweets, 36,400 quote tweets and 382,400 likes (shown below, left). Also on the same day, Scott^[6] made another response in an Instagram story (shown below, right).

My fans mean a world to me, and I always want to leave them with a positive experience. If at any time I could make out anything that was going on, I would stop the show and help them get the help they need, you know. I just could never imagine this […] situation.

The apology video was met with criticism by many, who found it disingenuous and unsatisfactory. People also criticized Scott's choice to use a black-and-white filter on the video and the way he constantly touches his face and wipes his forehead throughout it, saying he seemed tired and forced to do it. This inspired numerous memes mocking the apology video (examples shown below).

Videos and Witness Accounts

On November 6th, 2021, concertgoer Seanna Faith posted^[8] a witness account of the crowd crush at the concert and her attempts to attract people's attention to the trampling and deaths. The post (shown below) received over 1.3 million likes in two days, being reposted on other sites and reported on by the media in the following days. On November 6th, TikToker^[16] @astroverse007 posted a recording of Faith and another concertgoer Ayden Cruz screaming at a cameraman to stop the show, with the cameraman acting annoyed and waving them away. The video received over 22 million views and 3.3 million likes on the app in two days (shown below, right).

On November 7th, 2021, TikToker^[167] perry0071_ posted a recording of Scott singing while a group of first responders attended to an unresponsive person, writing "people dying while travis scott does the robot." The TikTok received over 25 million views in one day (shown below, right).

There's someone dead in there! There's someone dead! Stop the show! Stop the show!

More footage from the incident received spread on TikTok, Twitter and other social media in the days following the concert.

Kylie Jenner's Account

On November 6th, 2021, Kylie Jenner, Travis Scott's partner, posted an Instagram story that she and Scott only learned about fatalities at the concert after it ended (shown below).^[9] The claim was met with a negative reaction online as videos filmed at the concert suggested that Scott was aware of people being injured earlier.

Occult Ritual Conspiracy Theory

Following the spread of news and videos of the incident, some users on Twitter^[13][14] and other social media^[15] speculated that the concert was an occult (or demonic/satanic) ritual held involving human sacrifices, handpicking facts such as Travis Scott continuing to sing while unconscious people were being attended to by medical staff and "See you on the other side" being written on the promotional poster for the festival (images shown below).

First Lawsuit

On November 7th, 2021, Kherker Garcia, LLP, a representative of a person injured in the incident, filed a lawsuit against several entities, including Live Nation, the organization responsible for the security at the festival and Travis Scott himself, seeking at least $1 million in damages.^[6]

Online Reactions

The news of the incident sparked viral discussions on social media as users expressed condolences to the families of the victims, with several GoFundMe^[10][11][12] pages set up to help gather money for funeral expenses, and criticized Scott and organizers of the concert for poor security measures at the event, inadequate reaction to the incident and Scott not stopping the concert.

Search Interest

External References