Over the first weekend of November the rapper Travis Scott held Astroworld in Houston, Texas, which had been on a hiatus since COVID and had finally made a comeback. The event was supposed to be November 5th-7th lasting the whole weekend but after the unfortunate events that unfolded at Friday’s concert, the entire weekend of festivities had been cancelled. Ten people were killed as well as hundreds others were injured.
As the concert came to a screeching halt around 9:30 p.m., many audience members were surging towards the stage and there was a sense of complete panic among all who were present. There were also many people jumping over and breaking down fences to get into the already sold out event. Although the authorities claimed that the venue met safety inspection criteria for safe entry and exit, an abundance of people reported to the authorities that the event felt very overcrowded and unsafe in general.
There were many videos and first hand accounts of people trying to inform security and Travis Scott himself that people were getting harmed and dying and that the show should be stopped, but the security was downplaying the situation and telling concert goers to “calm down.” Videos also seem to show people getting on top of security vehicles. It does not seem like those fans knew what was going on or why the vehicles were trying to get into the crowd, but they were stopping many who were harmed from getting the immediate attention they needed. Among the ten people who tragically passed during this event, many were young adults and teenagers, including (the youngest was) a nine year old boy. Twenty-five others were also hospitalized because of injuries from the concert.
As well as all of this mass panic there is also mass speculation, one of the most common being that people were being injected with some sort of drugs.
“I think there is way too much speculation going on,” said senior Conner Acuna. “Everyone needs to let the police do their job investigating and stop the mass hysteria.”
At the press briefing, the HPD (Houston Police Department) sheriff addressed the claims directly, saying, “One of the narratives was that some individual was injecting other people with drugs.” While it remains unclear if that is the case, authorities do have a report of a security officer who was “reaching over to restrain or grab a citizen and felt a prick in his neck.” This officer was then reported unconscious with a suspected overdose. These reports are not consistent though because the security guard himself said he was “struck over the head not injected with anything.”w
Since the tragedy of this concert, Travis Scott has responded via his Instagram story stating that he was working with the city of Houston along with the HPD to identify the victims and learn more about exactly what occurred. He has not given any other information about his experience performing or any other updates. There is still an ongoing investigation in process.
