The city of Houston turned deadly Friday, Nov. 5 on what was supposed to be a fun night. Currently, 10 people have been reported dead and hundreds have been injured and hospitalized as a result of the Astroworld (rapper Travis Scott’s) show. 

Astroworld is a two-day outdoor festival much like Coachella or Lollapalooza. Multiple different artists were set to perform Friday such as SZA, Tame Impala, and Roddy Rich, to name a few. The event sold out in May and there were an estimated 50,000 attendees.

A countdown of 30 minutes started before Scott was set to come out on stage, around 9:30 p.m. That’s when the shoving began. All over social media are videos of people telling the horrors of the concert. People were trampled as people tried to get closer. People started suffocating after being squished into others. There were “sinkholes” of people. During the performance, people started passing out and going into cardiac arrest, as paramedics had to fight a swarm of people. Ambulances started coming to get people out, but some were stopped due to people dancing on top of them or stopping them from going through. 

A viral video of a young woman has surged on social media. In the video, she’s depicted climbing one of the filming platforms to tell the cameraman that someone has died. She’s screaming for him to do something and to get help, but he’s shown to have shooed her away. Starting to get defeated she slumps down and a young man climbs the ladder to help her and also starts yelling at the man. Other videos have surfaced of chants of ‘Stop the Show’ coming out. At one point, Travis did halt the show when he saw someone pass out, but continued to perform as medics started CPR on the individual.  The show went on for 40 minutes. 

Travis has gotten extreme backlash over his inaction to help. Many have posted videos of other artists such as Linkin Park, Harry Styles, Billie Eilish, and Adele, calling out the artist for his behavior. Travis has had problems in the past of his concerts getting too out of hand. He was charged with a misdemeanor of inciting a riot, disorderly conduct, and endangering the welfare of a minor after he told fans to rush the stage and overpower security.

Travis, as well as partner Kylie Jenner, who was also at the concert, have released several statements since the tragedy. Scott said he is “devastated by what happened last night” and has said he is cooperating with the Houston police. Jenner also released a statement on her Instagram story claiming she or Scott had no idea of what happened until after the show. The media has criticized Jenner and pointed out that during the concert she had posted to Instagram a video where there is clearly an ambulance in the middle of the crowd. 

As of Nov. 10, Travis announced he will be pairing with BetterHelp to offer a month of free therapy, and that he will cover the funeral costs for all casualties. Once again he is receiving hot backlash after many have called out that BetterHelp has had problems with privacy and data issues, selling information to third parties.

Casualties of Houston Astroworld Concert, As of Nov. 16

Ezra Blount, 9

John Hilgert, 14

Brianna Rodriguez, 16

Jacob Jurinek, 20

Franco Patino, 21

Axel Acosta, 21

Bharti Shahani, 22

Rodolfo Peña, 23

Madison Dubiski, 23

Danish Baig, 27