In the aftermath of the tragic events at the Astroworld Festival in Houston, where rapper Travis Scott performed and at least eight people between the ages of 14-27 died and others were injured, some of the attendees voiced their horror at what they witnessed.
“I was shocked to see people act so inconsiderate and feral,” one attendee recalled. “It was insane to see so many just run others over like wild animals.”
In a report from CNN, some attendees spoke of the terrible events of Friday night.
TK Tellez, 20, stated: “The crowd became tighter and tighter, and at that point it was hard to breathe. When Travis came out performing his first song, I witnessed people passing out next to me. … We were all screaming for help, and no one helped or heard us. It was horrifying. People were screaming for their lives, and they couldn’t get out. Nobody could move a muscle.”
Tellez fell after others had fallen on him. “Everybody was crying; it was the scariest sound I’ve ever heard. … Imagine listening to Travis Scott and people screaming for their lives at the same time,” he said, adding: “There was just not enough people to help everyone … Travis Scott would have a short time in between songs, and we would scream our vocal chords out so someone could hear us but nobody did. This year’s festival will be stuck with me forever. I’ve never seen someone die in front of my eyes. It was horrific.”
Selena Beltran said the crush of people got tighter and tighter as Scott neared the stage and she had trouble breathing. She continued, “I fell backwards and it felt like it was the end for me. To think that’s how I’ll die, I was so scared. … I did not know what to do. It was all happening so fast, but so slow and I couldn’t react. I just screamed.”
Beltran noted that some people had lost consciousness and were trampled nevertheless. She said, “I was shocked to see people act so inconsiderate and feral. It was insane to see so many just run others over like wild animals. … People did not care, they still tried to squeeze through just to get to the front without thinking of the consequences and who it would affect. … I looked around and just saw people stare and others continuing to enjoy themselves as if these people meant nothing. It felt like there was little humanity in that crowd.”
She later witnessed media transporting people. “I knew they had passed away. … I could not sleep last night. The moment kept replaying in my mind over and over again,” she said.
Billy Nasser, who said he works as a disc jockey, said, “I picked some kid up and his eyes rolled to the back of his head, so I checked his pulse. I knew he was dead. …I checked the people around me. And I just had to leave him there, there was nothing I could do. I had to keep going. … Kids were dropping left and right. … There wasn’t enough security guards and there wasn’t enough EMTs and people helping out the crowd. The paramedics couldn’t even reach the crowd.”
Madeline Eskins, an ICU nurse, told CNN of Scott, “He started a countdown about 30 minutes before he performed — he started a timer on the big screen. … And all of a sudden, people compressed up against each other and were pushing forward and backward. As the timer got closer to coming down to zero, it just — it got worse and worse.” She said the crowd squeezed her so hard that she lost consciousness, but before she did she asked her boyfriend to tell her son she loved him. She stated, “I’ve been to concerts and, yes, it gets tight, but I’ve never felt like I was going to pass out. I never saw people collapsing. I definitely never saw anybody die.”
Jeffrey Schmidt said people fell on him and his legs got stuck under other people. “At that moment my mind went into full survival mode,” he said. “All I could hear was people screaming and crying for help. … I lost all hope and thought I was going to die right there because I could not get my legs out. I fought for my life. I thought I was never going to see my best friend again, life did not feel real.” He concluded, “This was not a concert; this was a fight for survival.”