Unconscious bodies, crushed fans, and a crowd so packed that people can barely move. What was supposed to be a thrilling concert for 50,000 fans quickly turned into a disaster ending with the confirmed deaths of nine people to date.

The lineup of the 2021 Astroworld music festival was formally announced on Oct. 26 and was to occur in Houston from Nov. 5 to Nov. 6. Excited for Scott’s return after the pandemic, fans began lining up at 3:30 a.m., despite the show starting later that day. By the afternoon, security was already struggling to control the crowd, with hundreds of people rushing into the venue by running through checkpoints and metal detectors.

It was at 9:30 when the concert descended into chaos. ICU nurses had to take care of the seemingly endless number of unconscious bodies in the crowd before ambulances could arrive. Fans were packed so tightly together that they were unable to breathe. By this point, videos were being rapidly spread all over the Internet of people being stepped on and bodies being surfed over the crowd. 

Scott repeatedly stopped and restarted the show as fans attempted to alert him about the bodies in the crowd. Videos from concertgoers portrayed both Scott and his staff seemingly ignoring the fans in the crowd, focusing on building up the excitement in the crowd instead. Whether he interpreted the screams as excitement or chose to ignore them cannot be fully determined, but he kept the concert going until 10:10 p.m., even as the situation worsened. At some point, he stopped once to help someone who passed out at the concert, before continuing the show after.

The day after the concert, he apologized for the incident on his Instagram story, asking victims to contact him for support. However, Scott is still under major scrutiny for his actions during the concert.

“Back in 2019, I was actually at a Travis Scott concert, but safely seated in a section,” said junior Audrey Bichoupian. “From my section, I actually saw someone getting lifted out of the pit onto a stretcher minutes into the concert. I feel like Travis tries creating a crazy on-drugs type of environment, as it smelled like everyone around me was smoking weed,” she added. Nevertheless, Bichoupan explained that she doesn’t personally blame Scott for the recent incident. “There’s no doubt in my mind that Travis didn’t see people getting trampled and killed right in front of him,” she said.

On the other hand, some fans of Scott believe that the situation was out of his control. “This incident happened because the fans there made it happen. It was their own doing. There isn’t much more [Scott] could’ve done,” junior Zachary Astrof said. “Immediately shutting down the concert would’ve started a panic and more injuries. People should watch all the videos of what happened and do some research… before formulating their opinion.”

Despite the massive wave of criticism, Scott has promised to pay the funeral costs for the victims of the Astroworld festival to take responsibility for the tragedy that occurred at his concert.