'NO WAY OUT': The Harrowing Experience at a Houston Travis Scott Concert

By: Tyler Nguyen, Phoebe Hong and Alexis Ferguson

Edited by: Melanie Kuo, Gabi de Vega

Trigger warning: Mentions drug use, graphic recounts of violence, injuries, and death.

When you go to a concert, the first thing on your mind probably isn’t safety. However, since the night of Travis Scott’s Houston concert, the mindset of millions has forever changed.

The catastrophe began when a sudden wave of concert-attendees surged towards the front of the stage, resulting in in major fatalities and injuries. Some collapsed. Some fought to breathe in such compacted spaces. Others became mere stepping stones for overzealous concert-goers determined to crush anything in their path towards the fron​​t. Thousands were suffocating, hundreds were injured, and many dead. 8 people were confirmed dead on the night of the concert; Mirza Baig, Rodolfo Pena, Madison Dubiski, Franco Patino, Jacob Jurinke, John Hilgert, Axel Acosta Avila, and Brianna Rodriguez whose ages range from 14 to 27. Days after the concert, the ninth and youngest victim emerged, 9 year-old Ezra Blount, after battling his extensive injuries from the concert. Sirens were wailing, screams were prevailing, and the concerns of thousands invoked.

An initial report identified that a security guard was injected with a needle that contained an opioid. This report has was at first verified then since debunked by Houston police, another display of the chaotic paranoia and unimaginable trauma occurring on this harrowing night. This led to controversy and confusion all throughout social media and the internet, causing people to question their safety and the threat of drugs when going to a concert. With the documentation that social media presented to the public, many will forever be haunted by the catastrophic event known as the Astroworld Festival.

In videos recorded by concert-goers that have since been uploaded to social media platforms such as Instagram and TikTok, one can hear the harrowing cries of desperation and help drowned out in the hectic concert. Videos and pictures captured at this night show concert-goers compacted chest-to-chest among one another, to a point where most of the attendees were stuck raising both arms in the air for the entirety of the event, as there was no room to put their arms in between the sea of bodies.

In the midst of such chaos, the security guards managing the concert were captured on videos looking bewildered and unsure of how to control the situation. While many blame the guards for failing to protect the concert-goers, many security guards have since spoken up about the event confessing they "feared for their lives.” One security guard who has been in the entertainment management industry for 10 years reported he had never in his years in the industry seen anything like what unfolded at Scott's concert. "My colleagues and I couldn't help but to fear for our lives as well. I thought to myself, 'I might not make it home to my family tonight.'"

While some point fingers at the security guards for allowing the situation to accumulate into a disastrous series of events, the general public more so expressed their disappointment and anger towards the artist, Travis Scott, for continuing the show despite the chaos that was unfolding just tens of feet away from his stage. Videos uploaded to the Internet showed desperate concert-goers climbing up onto the stage yelling at the camera crew, staff and even Travis Scott to stop the show. "Stop the show'' was repeatedly chanted by the audience at one point, yet Travis Scott proceeded with his entire sequence. It is unclear whether or not he was aware of the severity of the chaos occurring throughout the show, yet many have contrasted Travis Scott's reckless or oblivious actions to the proactive manners of other artists who have stepped in to protect their fans at their concerts.

During a 1993 concert, Kurt Cobain of Nirvana, stopped mid-song and ran into the crowd to confront a man who was sexually assaulting a woman. Not only did Cobain physically break apart the assault, he and the rest of his band continued to out the assaulter in front of everyone for public humiliation. Billie Eilish is another artist recognized for her concern for the safety of her fans, as she stopped her show to ask her fans to offer water or medical care multiple times throughout her shows after realizing they looked faint. With the resurfacing of examples of artists who showed genuine care for their fans, Travis Scott has been called out on social media for his lack of professionality and overall indifference for the wellbeing of his fans.

Now, two weeks after the tragedy, Travis Scott is facing up to $2,000,000,000 in lawsuits. With many families grieving for the loss of a beloved family member, and thousands of concert-goers traumatized, these irreversible consequences depict the devastating results of impetuous behavior by both concert-goers and event coordinators. Many of the injuries and deaths that occurred on November 5th at the Travis Scott concert were a result of the lack of respect and value for human life in dire situations. Through tragedies such as this, it is absolutely necessary to come together as a community, reflect, and pledge to prevent any more undeserving deaths, injuries, or losses.

Sources:

Goodman, J. David, and Edgar Sandoval. “Houston Officials Worried about Crowd Control before Travis Scott Took the Stage.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 8 Nov. 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/07/us/astroworld-travis-scott-deaths.html.

Yan, Holly, and Rosa Flores. “Houston's Police Chief Spoke with Travis Scott about Safety before a Deadly Crowd Surge Left 8 People Dead at the Astroworld Festival.” CNN, Cable News Network, 9 Nov. 2021, https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/08/us/houston-astroworld-festival-monday/index.html.

“Astroworld Security Guard Not Injected with Drugs, Police Say.” BBC News, BBC, 11 Nov. 2021, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-59218539.