Fans regarded this year’s Astroworld festival as a death trap. Eight dead, two in critical condition, and numerous injured. It had been two years (2019) since the last Astroworld festival which ended in three people trampled and multiple injured. Jacques Webster, aka Travis Scott, had faced two prior criminal charges related to inciting crowds into overheated fervors. A festival in 2015 left a fan partially paralyzed who then sued Scott and claimed that fans pushed him off a balcony. Travis Scott has also been known to encourage fans to hop over barricades and fences to get closer to him, thus putting security and event staff safety at risk. Scott also pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct in 2018 in Arkansas for encouraging fans to rush the stage there as well. 

The festival this past weekend was completely sold out with 50,000 attending in Houston, Texas. As the timer went down counting until Travis Scott’s arrival, fans described that the crowd started to squeeze and condense until the feeling of being crushed became very apparent. It was then that fans started to pass out and were being trampled over and stomped on. As Scott entered stage the crowd erupted with screams of excitement while also being mixed with cries for help. “There were mosh pits in every single direction and there was little to no air available to breathe,” Alex Gauvin, one of the fans, described the scene. Many videos surfaced on social media of ambulances driving into the crowd, passed out bodies being crowd surfed into safety, as well as Scott continuing to perform his set. Days after, more videos were being uploaded of Travis telling fans to clear out to let medical units tend to the wounded later in the night. 

Travis Scott, Kylie Kardashian, and Live Nation all extended their apologies and resources to the fans and families that were affected by the tragedy. Scott will cover all the funeral expenses for the victims as well. Travis Scott still maintains that he did not know what was going on and evidence of that was shown in the concert live stream. In the footage Scott is shown pausing his performance and looking on in apparent confusion as an ambulance is pulled into the crowd and then continuing his performance. The festival did not continue the next day, due to the tragedies that occurred the previous night.