10 Shocking Reveals from Trainwreck: The Astroworld Tragedy
10 Shocking Reveals from Trainwreck: The Astroworld Tragedy
Welcome to MsMojo, and today well be diving into the biggest bombshells unearthed in the Netflix documentary Trainwreck: The Astroworld Tragedy.
More Tickets Were Sold Than Were Safe
The failures that led to the tragedy at 2021s Astroworld Festival began long before the event itself. Live Nation, the touring giant responsible for promoting the festival, allegedly sold way more tickets than the venue could handle. According to crowd safety expert Scott Davidson, the viewing capacity for the main stage, where Travis Scott performed that night, was estimated to be around 35,000. Yet, 50,000 tickets were reportedly sold. Even worse, this decision seemed to have been made without confirming whether the venue could safely hold that many attendees. This critical misstep became the first domino in the chain of events that would ultimately lead to the fatal crowd crush.
Security Guards Were Hurriedly Hired & Undertrained
For an event of this size, one would expect a professional organization to provide adequate, well-trained security personnel. But that didnt seem to be the case. Jackson Bush, a security guard who was interviewed in the documentary, recalled being hired mere hours before the event began. That might still have been excusable if the guards received any proper training beforehand, but it appears even that was lacking. According to Bush, they were simply told to show up at a specific time, with no formal preparation. The only direction they received came informally from other people who had apparently worked there before. An overcrowded venue staffed by untrained, unprepared guards was a clear recipe for disaster.
Staff Lost Control of the Gates Almost Immediately
You have to remember that the 2021 Astroworld Festival was one of the first major concerts after COVID-19 restrictions began to lift, so fans were buzzing with excitement. Footage from the documentary shows that as soon as the gates opened, they rushed the entrances, blowing past the light security and pouring into the venue. This chaos wasnt at all unexpected though. Live Nation had reportedly instructed its photographers to lean into the frenzy and capture the wild energy of the crowd. However, the situation quickly escalated. Some fans exploited the lax security, and began tearing down fences and sneaking in. This meant many people without tickets gained access to the festival, turning an already overcrowded event into a ticking time bomb.
Travis Scotts History of Crowd Management Issues
The 2021 Astroworld tragedy didnt occur in a vacuum. Beyond the major failures leading up to the event, there were clear warning signs from Travis Scotts previous shows. The rapper is known for urging his fans to rage and match his intense stage energy. This behavior has repeatedly taken a dangerous turn in the past and resulted in Scott being arrested at least twice. The first incident occurred at the 2015 Lollapalooza Festival when he told fans to climb over the barricades and join him onstage. He was sentenced to one year of court supervision for reckless conduct. Two years later, Scott was charged with inciting a riot, disorderly conduct and endangering the welfare of a minor after several attendees were injured during a show in Rogers, Arkansas.
The Placement of Travis Scotts Stage
The 2021 edition of the Astroworld Festival was a major expansion of the previous shows. It was planned as a two-day event with two separate stages one for the other performers and another dedicated solely to Travis Scott. Because Scotts stage remained unused for most of the day, nearly all attendees converged there at the same time for his performance. To make matters worse, the stage had only one prominent access point on the left side, which became the primary entry route for the crowd. With no legible signs or proper security to redirect people toward the right side of the stage, the left quickly became overcrowded. This intense crowd crush ultimately resulted in 10 fatalities, all of which reportedly occurred on the left side.
Live Nation Allegedly Ignored the Severity of the Situation
Even before Travis Scott took the stage, several attendees were already feeling the effects of the crowd crush. And it appears the danger had already been communicated to the top. Text messages obtained by the filmmakers suggest that Live Nation executives were alerted to the situation at 9pm, two minutes before Scotts set began. Despite this, the show was allowed to continue. Crowd safety expert Scott Davidson added that Houston police became aware of the severity of the crisis around 9:30 and attempted to locate the Live Nation manager authorized to stop the show. Their efforts were however unsuccessful. Apparently, only two executives had the authority to halt the performance, but both were unreachable so the concert raged on.
Two Concertgoers Tried to Stop the Show
The longer Scotts set went on, the more dangerous the situation became for the crowd. Some attendees, recognizing how badly things could end, attempted to bring the show to a halt. Ayden Cruz, who had also been trampled in the crowd but managed to find his way out, tried to draw attention to the crisis. He climbed onto the cameramans platform, shouting at Astroworld staff to stop the show and help those in distress. Although some of the other concertgoers yelled at him to quit being disruptive, a young woman soon joined him in seeking help. Sadly, their urgent pleas fell on deaf ears and were largely drowned out by the sounds of Scotts performance.
Travis Scott Briefly Stops Then Restarts the Show
Around 9:42pm, after multiple unsuccessful attempts to halt the show, it briefly appeared like that was finally happening. Travis Scott noticed someone in the audience had passed out and paused to draw attention to them. With the venue mostly silent, many attendees began chanting for the show to be stopped, hoping they would finally be heard. They chanted and chanted and chanted. But as soon as the unconscious individual was carried out of the crowd, Scott resumed performing. Shortly after, a Live Nation manager reportedly urged an audio engineer to communicate the seriousness of the situation to Scott. But it is unclear if that message ever reached him. Meanwhile, Houston police appeared to extend the concerts runtime, allowing Drake to join Scott onstage.
The Tragedy Was Overshadowed by a Wave of Misinformation
Almost immediately after news of the tragedy broke, the actual facts were drowned out by a flood of misinformation and conspiracy theories. Various social media platforms quickly became inundated with posts claiming that the music festival was merely a front for a Satanic ritual and that the deaths were part of a human sacrifice. Another widely shared theory suggested that the medical emergencies at the concert were caused by attendees being injected with tainted drugs. Not only were these theories disrespectful to the victims and their families, but they also diverted attention away from the real causes of the tragedy, such as poor planning, overcrowding and a failure to promptly address issues as soon as they arose.
No One Was Held Criminally Responsible
The Astroworld Festival crowd crush resulted in the deaths of 10 people, all of which were caused by accidental compressive asphyxiation. However, as Scott Davidson pointed out, this was no accident. It could have been prevented if the proper safety measures had been put in place. In the aftermath of the tragedy, a criminal investigation was launched to determine whether Travis Scott or any of the event organizers were responsible. In June 2023, following a nearly two-year investigation, a grand jury declined to indict Scott or anyone else on criminal charges. Nonetheless, Scott has faced multiple lawsuits from attendees and the victims families, many of which have since been settled out of court.
Have you watched Trainwreck: The Astroworld Tragedy? What details about the ill-fated music festival stunned you the most? Let us know in the comments below.
