By: Edric Brillantes

A music festival turned deadly on Friday. Travis Scott’s “Astroworld” left 9 concertgoers dead with several attendants also being hospitalized. The festival, which took place in Houston, Texas, kicked off its third year of performing on Friday and had an estimated 50,000 people in attendance. Many witnesses caught people rushing into the gates and sneaking into the festival, which caused an overflow of fans during the festival. 

“It was poorly planned and not very well secured. There should’ve been more protocols,” said concert venue worker and Mt. Hebron student Lilly Simpson.

Scott took the stage approximately around 9 PM, causing an already rowdy crowd to go haywire. Many attendees were squeezed and had no room to breathe due to the ridiculous crowd size. Some people were dehydrated and passed out because of the high water bottle prices, which were around $7 a piece. People were running through others trying to get to the front of the crowd, causing a crowd surge, and many people getting trampled and crushed.

“Travis Scott and his management saw what was happening and didn’t stop the concert, which is awful,’ said Mt. Hebron student Khalid Jawhar.

Fans chanted for Scott to stop the concert to allow first responders to help those in the crowd. Scott, who has had a history of instigating poor crowd behavior in the past, ignored these chants and only stopped a few times momentarily when he realized what was happening. Fans even jumped and danced on ambulances that were trying to carry people out of the crowd. Scott and concert organizers did nothing to stop these fans.

“The way Travis Scott tells his fans how to act is the root of the problem, and unless security is hard on stopping these, because Scott won’t, the fans will continue to have no regard for other people,” said Jawhar.

Scott’s performance stopped just after 10 PM with many injured attendees just an hour removed from the beginning. The Associated Press reported that 300 people were treated in the medical field at the festival. Houston officials reported that eight people were dead and 25 were hospitalized as of Saturday morning. Since then it has been reported a hospitalized person has since passed, totalling nine.

“People went to this concert to see one of their favorite artists and have a good time, and instead lost their lives,” replied Jawhar. 

Many are calling out Scott’s controversial decision to go on with the concert and concert officials for having no regard for those in attendance. Scott would later apologize and ask for prayers for those who were injured during the concert on social media.