What went wrong at Travis Scott's Astroworld
As lawsuits, a criminal investigation and social media try to assign blame for the fatal crowd surge at Travis Scott’s Astroworld festival, a look at the warning signs before the concert, and the long history of festival disasters.
With Travis Scott on stage for the first day of his Astroworld Festival on Friday, a crowd of some 50,000 fans at Houston's NRG Park surged forward. In the resulting crush, many fans were immobilized, and some were unable to breathe.
Eight people died and hundreds more were injured. A pile of lawsuits, a criminal investigation and social media criticism are blaming at everyone from Scott, to promoter Live Nation and even to the crowd itself.
As details about what went wrong emerge, Stereogum senior editor Tom Breihan tells us how this Astroworld disaster fits into Scott's chaotic career and the long history of deadly crowd crushes at concerts.