The Travis Scott Concert
The Friday of November 5th down in Houston started off as any other day would. A beautiful blue sky with no clouds in sight, nature buzzing in the Autumn weather, and tons of fun to be had. This you can imagine would be the perfect opportunity to host an insanely engaging music festival for the public to take part in. And who other than Houston’s very own, Travis Scott.
One of the more popular rap artists in the game who is vehemently known for his reckless persona, he alongside many other fellow artists - which include Drake, Roddy Ricch, 21 Savage, and SZA just to name a few - set up the Astroworld Festival, a weekend-long event full of music and performances for the masses. You would think that this would go smoothly as the promoters were world-class, the event was sold out, and that this was not Travis Scott’s first rodeo, no pun intended. But what was supposed to be a weekend full of memories was instead one that brought tragedy to thousands of fans that sent shockwaves to the music world.
You might be wondering, where did it all start? This can be traced back to the weeks leading up to the festival. As expected, the tickets sold out pretty quickly, leaving thousands of fans without a ticket. Travis saw this as an opportunity to, “Finesse a few tickets” for those who were less fortunate to secure a spot the first time. An already sold out event was about to get thousands of more fans, I repeat, AN ALREADY SOLD OUT EVENT was about to get more fans. What could possibly go wrong...well as you’re about to find out, ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING.
November 5th saw the first red flag where a bunch of fans stormed the gates that let them into the festival. This led to thousands of attendees trampling and running over each other without concern for anybody's safety. Security was also vastly outnumbered so they could not do anything but watch as they were shoved and trampled over as well. There were even fans that went as far as climbing over the barriers to get in, a certain type of behaviour that Travis has previously urged his fans to do on multiple occasions. So this is nothing new to him or his fans as they all mirror his reckless personality.
The second red flag was the warnings issued to the rapper and the concert promoters beforehand. The Houston Police Department actually told the artist, promoters and organizers that the recklessness of fans and the shortage of medical staff and security could lead to serious damage and potential injuries and loss of life at the event if it was not cancelled. Both the artist and all parties ignored those signs and the event went on as planned.
So 50,000 plus fans gathered at the concert area in the evening hours and as each artist did their performance, it was relatively tamed. But as soon as Travis Scott came out for his performance, all hell broke loose. This was the third and final red flag in all of this madness, the fans started pushing and shoving each other to get as close as they could to him. This led to fans struggling to breathe and being crushed and suffocated by the onslaught of over 50,000 fans trying to get closer to the rapper. Hundreds of fans were caught and suffered serious injuries with some lying lifeless on the ground, bleeding, and passed out as the show carried on. Because medical staff took over 20 minutes to arrive on the scene as many injured people were being reported, some fans took it upon themselves to perform CPR on those who were laying on the ground unconscious, some were unsuccessful in that matter. It got so bad that fans were pleading with the rapper to stop the concert entirely, and despite several pauses to let an ambulance drive into the crowd to transport the already hundreds of people injured to the local hospital, he continued raging on with the show, leading to many more injuries and casualties.
After the concert, the wake of the tragedy was unveiled. Over 8 people were killed and over 300 others sustained injuries due to the surge. Those who survived to tell the tale mentioned that they tried to get out of the venue but couldn’t because of the sheer number of people pressing against them and unfortunately creating a barrier that they couldn’t escape from. They also sustained serious mental trauma from the events that took place at the concert, which many have yet and may unlikely recover from. A night that was supposed to be full of fun and excitement with your friends turned out to be one full of reckoning and tragedy.
The aftermath of all of this sees Travis Scott, Apple, Live Nation, and many of the artists who also performed at the venue being sued for their roles on that night. As of to date, all parties face a lawsuit seeking $2 billion in damages from 282 plaintiffs that are linked to the deadly tragedy, including families of the deceased. This is a huge wakeup call for the music industry for how music festivals should be operated and what measures of safety should be strictly enforced to prevent such a devastating event like this happening again.
In my honest opinion, Travis Scott, the promoters and organizers deserve everything that is coming to them. They saw all the red flags before the concert was scheduled to start but decided to ignore them and continue as planned. They prioritized revenue over the thousands of lives that have been changed forever because of the tragedy, and now it is going to cost them big time! As rightfully so, Travis Scott has since cancelled the rest of the Astroworld Festival venues, offered full refunds of his tickets, paid out funeral costs to the families of the deceased and offered therapy for those impacted from the traumatizing event. But none of those acts could take back what was a woeful Friday to remember down in Houston. Myself and the rest of the members on The Rap Clash send our best wishes and condolences to those impacted by this horrible tragedy.