On the weekend of November 5, 2021, tragedy took place in Houston, Texas, at the Astroworld Festival. Hosted by Travis Scott and promoted by Live Nation, the highly anticipated event went quickly downhill, resulting in the loss of nine lives, which this week was pronounced to be ten. Astroworld was set to host 50,000 people, however, stampedes of fans stormed the gates, pushing past the meek security. They entered the event unchecked for weapons, drugs, vaccinations, or even tickets. 

At the start of the day, Metro Boomin kicked it off at one pm. Followed by Master P, Yves Tumor, Toro y Moi, Don Toliver, Roddy Rich, Lil Baby, and SZA. Finally around 8:45 pm., headliner Travis Scott. All day, there were signs of rage and urgency in the crowd, with pushing and shoving, during sets that were planned to be calm. By the time a thirty minute timer appeared on the stage, counting down to Scott, the crowd began to push forward, causing an already tight fit to shrink, stacking people nearly on top of each other. Attendees said they barely had any room to have two feet on the ground, gasping for air. According to Vulture, the Houston Fire Chief said,  “the people in the front to be compressed — they were unable to escape that situation” (Bekiempis). Several people have come forward on social media platforms and shared their experiences of trauma and anguish caused by the event.

Travis Scott is known for having concerts that go off the rails. In a documentary from 2019,  titled, Look Mom I Can Fly, clips of his previous concerts were shared. One resulted in his arrest in Arkansas in 2017 for inciting a riot. In another instance, not featured in the documentary, a young man was left paralyzed after a Scott show. In April of 2017, Kyle Green, 23 years old was pushed off of a balcony by other fans and fell to the floor which led to his paralysis.  Time and time again, Travis Scott has shown the danger of attending his shows, but after no one saw the warnings, a massive tragedy took place.

The Astroworld catastrophe has put a bad image on rap concerts. People are now going to be hesitant to attend other concerts, making other artists suffer, who have much better safety protocols. It’s hard to write an article over such awful circumstances, however it is important to talk about, and to be aware of the lives that were lost. 

Scott released a video a couple days after the event, which some said was superficial, but he made it clear that he would be in close contact with the victims families and do what he can to help them out, in this tragic time.