A 9-year-old boy has become the tenth person to die tragically in connection with Travis Scott’s Astroworld Festival in Houston, Texas.
Astroworld Was Meant to Be a Father-Son Bonding Experience
According to The Houston Chronicle, the child had attended the November 5th concert with his father, who had hoped the event would be a bonding experience for the two. But the evening turned deadly shortly after Houston native Scott took the stage at 9:00 p.m. That’s when the crowd gathered at NRG Park began surging towards the stage.
The father lifted his son to his shoulders in a bid to protect the boy but passed out himself not long after. When his father came to, the child was gone. The family would eventually find him at Texas Children’s Hospital, where he lay in a medically-induced coma with damage to his heart, lungs, and kidneys. Doctors said his brain swelled after he went into cardiac arrest. The family suspects the child had been trampled in the crowd.
“Me and the family, we’re struggling with this,” the boy’s grandfather told Chronicle shortly after he was hospitalized. “We’re struggling with seeing the injuries to our grandchild and what he had to go through to receive those injuries. We’re hurt and disappointed that the city would allow an event to go on like this and for people to be deceased. We just want to know who’s responsible.”
In addition to the ten deaths, hundreds of other Astroworld attendees were injured that night, some critically. The victims were all between the ages of 9 and 27.
Astroworld Festival Chaos Began to Build Early on Opening Day
According to a fire department timeline leaked to The Houston Chronicle, the volatile situation in NRG Park actually began to unfold hours before Travis Scott made his appearance.
“HPD preparing to open gates to participants,” firefighters wrote in a log at 9:15 a.m. Moments later, they added another entry: “Participants breached secondary checkpoint.” Just three minutes later, would-be concertgoers had breached the main entryway, rushing past a COVID testing area.
Shortly after 10 a.m., the logs note: “Venue fences damaged. No control of participants.” Four attendees were hurt in the initial rush. An 11:00 a.m. entry states that “participants are now dismantling the barricades.”
Throughout the day, attendees attempted to break through, under, and around the gate. Some were even using bolt cutters. Several people were taken to the hospital throughout the afternoon, including one person who required treatment for “facial trauma.”
“Dangerous Crowd Conditions” Reported Before 5:00 p.m.
At roughly 4:50 p.m., Houston Police Department officers struggled to control a crowd attempting to push down barriers around one of the festival stages.
“HPD reports dangerous crowd conditions,” the logs show. They also noted that police had received reports of people with guns. The number of concert crashers continued to grow, with officials estimating that as many as 5,000 people had not been scanned entering the park.
Police reported a “mob” at Main Street at 7:15 p.m. Nine minutes later, a crowd of some 250 people rushed a pedestrian bridge. By 9:18 p.m., it was apparent that the situation was out-of-control. “Individual with crush injury, breathing difficulty,” firefighters wrote. An entry made just 10 minutes later noted: “This is when it all got real.”
Shortly before 10:00 p.m., Houston officials declared Astroworld a “mass casualty incident.” However, Scott’s performance would continue for another 37 minutes before organizers finally shut down the festival.
Astroworld Festival Security Protocols Under Scrutiny
Travis Scott has long had a reputation for chaotic performances and unruly crowds. He’s been twice arrested in the past for encouraging audiences to bypass security protocols and rush the stage. Yet despite this history, critics have asserted that concert promoter Live Nation relied on a security and emergency response plan that lacked any protocols for handling a dangerous crowd surge.
Last Thursday, the president of the Houston Professional Fire Fighters Association also claimed in an interview with CNN that a district fire chief from the station closest to NRG Park was twice denied access to conduct a walk-through of the venue ahead of the event.
More than 300 Houston police officers were assigned to Astroworld, along with an additional 241 private security personnel provided by Live Nation. The concert promotor also provided the medics for the event’s field hospital. However, reports suggest medical personnel were quickly overwhelmed.
“They weren’t equipped to handle the sheer number and complexity of the patients that presented themselves,” Houston Fire Chief Samuel Peña would later say.
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Our Houston Astroworld Festival Injury and Wrongful Death Lawyers are representing numerous concertgoers seriously hurt during Travis Scott’s November 5th performance at NRG Park. We urge injured victims and their families to speak with an experienced attorney before accepting payment for medical bills, funeral expenses, or other forms of compensation from Scott, Live Nation, and other Astroworld parties.
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