Latest news with #Astroworld2021
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
The Deadly Astroworld Tragedy Sparked An Urgent Safety Debate. Then, One Family Took Action.
It's hard to forget the calamitous events of the 2021 Astroworld Festival, as what began as a carefree Travis Scott-run concert event quickly spiraled into a harrowing nightmare. On Nov. 5, 2021, at NRG Park in Houston, a deadly catastrophe had unfolded after a massive crowd surge during Scott's headlining performance. In the end, 10 people died, aged between 9 and 27, and hundreds more suffered physical injuries as well as emotional turmoil. In clips that circulated online, attendees screamed for help — cries that they say went unheard— as no one behind the festival stepped in to end the event immediately. There were reports of people crushed in different parts of the overwhelming crowd, experiencing breathing difficulties, and, for some, cardiac arrest. Netflix revisits that haunting reality in its new documentary, 'Trainwreck: The Astroworld Tragedy,' a recollection of the disastrous event as told through interviews with festival attendees, survivors and families of victims whose lives haven't been the same since that fateful night. The film recounts the events that led to Astroworld's safety failures in an attempt to detail where exactly the festival went wrong and who might be to blame, with help from experts and personnel who were involved behind-the-scenes — including the former commander of the Houston Police, Mark Lentini, who maintains that the chaos of the event was 'so totally predictable.' The documentary backs up that claim with references to past crowd management incidents involving Scott, including Lollapalooza 2015, where the rapper was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct for encouraging fans to ignore security barricades and rush the stage. Scott faced no criminal charges for the aftermath of the Astroworld tragedy, nor did event promoter Live Nation or others in connection with the deadly crush after a Texas grand jury declined to indict. The rap star has acknowledged the mass casualty event a handful of times since then, including in an Instagram video posted immediately following the festival, a too-soon-announced BetterHelp partnership offering free therapy to those impacted (which faced major backlash), and interviews with Charlamagne Tha God (one month after the tragedy) and GQ. Live Nation issued its own brief statement online shortly after the Astroworld incident and addressed allegations of overselling the event in Netflix's documentary. Still, none of those acknowledgments made up for the alleged organizational failures and poor crowd planning that allowed such a tragedy to happen. 'I believe Astroworld 2021 was not an accident,' says crowd safety expert Scott Davidson at one point in the Netflix doc. 'It was an inevitability due to the lack of foresight and the abandonment of basic safety protocols.' He adds, 'This was not a case of missing red flags. This was a case of ignoring blaring warning sirens.' That's been an especially tough pill to swallow for those still grappling with the aftermath of Astroworld, like Maria Peña, who lost her 23-year-old son, Rudy Peña, to the calamity. 'I wish there were changes because of what happened with Rudy and the other people,' she says in the doc. 'I wish that now those artists who perform, those owners of those companies, were better. So that what happened to Rudy doesn't happen to anyone else.' One family that viewers don't hear from in the 'Astroworld Tragedy' documentary is the parents of Madison Dubiski, one of the 10 victims who died from the crushing environment of the event. According to Brian Dubiski, Madison's father, Netflix did not directly contact their family, nor do they have a part in the new documentary. Still, what they say they endured the night of Astroworld — and every day that's followed — mirrors the sentiments shared by other victims' loved ones featured in the film. 'It was pretty horrific,' Michelle Dubiski, Madison's mother, laments, thinking back on the day that all hell broke loose. The hours before her daughter and son, Ty, who she says were 'inseparable best friends,' traveled to the Astroworld Festival together were much different. 'They were excited all day from the beginning of the morning,' Brian says. 'FaceTiming both of us. Madison getting ready to go, sending us pictures of what she was wearing. They were fans of Travis's and had seen him before, so they were excited and ready to go. And unfortunately, it turned into a horrible tragedy.' As Michelle remembers it, Madison, her brother, and their three childhood best friends arrived at the festival around 5:30 p.m., oblivious to the chaos that had occurred earlier that day when some attendees breached the entry gates and rushed past security to storm the festival grounds. 'All of us were unaware of that, or the kids would not have remotely been going,' she asserts. Even while at the event, Michelle says she and Brian were still speaking with their kids, getting more pictures that Madison had sent. 'But then, at a certain point,' when cell service dropped out, 'we lost any sort of communication.' That's when things took a turn for the worse. It started when Michelle received a phone call from one of Madison's best friends, who was not at Astroworld that night, but also got a call from friends telling her to get to Madison because she had been hurt. 'I couldn't even put two words together,' Michelle recalls, noting that she initially couldn't get in touch with her son either, because of poor cell reception in the area. 'So we immediately jump up and start calling hospitals.' It turns out that, in the interim, Ty and Madison got separated amid the chaos, while he and his friends were shifted to another area of the festival where others had been displaced. 'So he had no idea until Brian and I were able to get a hold of him, saying, 'You've got to get to the med tents and find Madison.'' Forty-five minutes of scrambling passed before Michelle received another phone call, this time from a local hospital, stating that Madison was there. But from there, she says, 'It was just devastating.' 'We were frantic,' Brian adds. 'It's just that feeling, that gut feeling, that something bad has happened. And Ty being frantic, and us trying to communicate with him as he's running from tent to tent — I think he had lost both of his shoes from the crowd surge — the whole thing was chaotic.' The parents didn't know what to make of the mayhem, as they had never experienced such pandemonium from a music festival of all events, although Brian acknowledges that there have been other disasters in the past — like the 1990 Glastonbury Festival and Woodstock '99, which was also a documentary subject in Netflix's 'Trainwreck' series. Still, nothing could've prepared the two for the unexpected news of their daughter's death. 'There's nothing more imaginable than walking into a hospital and having a doctor basically just look at you and not have to say anything and just shake his head,' Brian says. 'It's haunting.' 'As parents,' Michelle adds, 'you spend your whole life protecting your children to keep them out of harm's way. Never in our wildest imagination would we dream that our two adult children would go to a concert and one would not come home.' An autopsy from a medical examiner confirmed that Madison, along with the other nine Astroworld victims, died of accidental 'compression asphyxia.' However, Brian says, 'Without oversharing, it was much more gruesome than that.' By some festivalgoers' accounts, as outlined in the 'Astroworld Tragedy' documentary, people in the crowd that night were being trampled on, some stacked on top of one another, struggling to breathe. Others were squeezed together so tightly they couldn't even move their bodies. According to victims' attorneys, more than 4,900 people (much more than initial reports of hundreds) were physically hurt in some capacity, with over 700 claims filed by people who needed 'extensive medical treatment,' Billboard reported. Looking back on the fatal event, Madison's father is adamant that what took place 'didn't have to happen.' 'We believe, again, very strongly that it could have been preventable,' says Brian. 'And so did the public report that the police department released.' After the festival, the Houston Chronicle reported that past court records show that Live Nation has been linked to hundreds of injuries and deaths at its events since 2006. 'I think people assume, as did we, that every protocol would be in place and everything would be zipped up when anybody attends a large event,' Michelle says. 'And to find out that it wasn't, and our daughter was a victim of that, as Brian said, it's a hard pill to swallow.' That's what inspired the two parents to start their Pink Bows Foundation, an organization established in Madison's honor on May 1, 2022, (the same day as her birthday) to promote live event safety and advocate for policies that will improve standards going forward. So that 'another family never has to endure this type of horrific tragedy ever again.' The pink bows in the foundation's name stem from a poster-sized picture of Madison that Michelle and Brian's nieces and nephews created for a makeshift memorial to their daughter at NRG Park. Someone then put out a pink bow and hashtagged it 'Pink Bows for Madison,' and it took off from there on social media. 'I tell people often that I truly know that those Pink Bows kept Brian and I alive in a time that was just beyond shattering,' says Michelle. 'And so when we started the foundation as our way to say thank you, because at that time we weren't able to speak to the media. We couldn't really go on social media at all and say thank you to the world.' 'And so our way of thanking the world for their incredible acts of kindness,' she adds, 'was to name the foundation the Pink Bows Foundation.' To this day, Madison's parents remember her as the 'nicest, sweetest, [most] compassionate, loving, caring individual' one could know. The Cyprus, Texas, native, who died at age 23, grew up as a competitive dancer and cheerleader 'from the time she could walk,' Michelle notes. Madison was also a 'super philanthropic' member of the National Charity League. 'By the time she graduated from high school, she had 500 philanthropic hours at 25 different charities,' her mom says. That's where the charitable component of the Pink Bows Foundation comes in, supporting causes close to Madison's heart. Even before the foundation was established, Madison's parents say they began an endowment fund to award scholarships through Madison's alma mater, Cy-Fair High School, and its special needs Best Buddies program. However, the aspect that parents are most proud of is the advocacy work that's helping them make strides in addressing the deeply rooted issues with large-scale event organization and management, as stated on their foundation's website. The Pink Bows Foundation's biggest initiative, so far, has been launching The Showstop® Procedure, a training and certification program created by global experts in crowd safety and management that's helping to set new standards in the event space and, further, preventing injuries and fatalities like those from Astroworld. 'We have the first one in the world that's been created essentially, where it comes with an accredited certification,' says Brian. 'The curriculum was worked out through and approved by the International Risk and Safety Management Group. We went out and vetted what we considered to be the top two crowd safety experts in the world, and that was Steve Allen and Dr. Mark Hamilton, both extremely respected in this industry.' The program first launched in Houston, where Brian and Michelle hoped to start small before rolling out to other regions to begin 'getting the wheels going and start making an impact.' 'And I think we've done that,' he says. They claim to have already trained and certified over 200 individuals who have completed the process within the last 90 to 120 days, and aim to continue helping venues, promoters and the live entertainment industry worldwide. Through this work, the foundation has garnered support from public figures like Sir Paul McCartney, musician Jim Kerr, and renowned promoter Barrie Marshall, as well as global event safety alliances. When it launched three years ago, Brian says he and Michelle didn't have 'any idea we would be able to grow like this and be surrounded by such great human beings and support and people that have helped the foundation make such strides.' However, through their own education, help from others and the progress they have made so far, they feel assured that they're doing all the right things to honor Madison's memory. 'I don't think there's anyone out there who can dispute that what we're doing is for the better good,' says Brian. 'We want to continue doing that in every way we can. And we're proud of the work that our entire team, our foundation, our board, and all of our representatives and volunteers have done.' 'We owe that to our daughter so that she didn't die in vain,' he adds. 'We know she would be fighting for both of us if the tables were turned, and we want to create a legacy in a positive manner.' In between losing Madison and establishing the Pink Bows Foundation, Brian and Michelle filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Scott, Live Nation, and other event promoters and organizers. The families of the other nine victims also sued over their loved ones' deaths. By May 2024, all 10 cases were settled for undisclosed amounts, but that didn't bring the Dubiski family closure. 'There's not any type of settlement that can bring our daughter back,' says Brian. 'I think the closure for us was getting past that so that we can breathe and try to start healing.' For Michelle, she says, 'There's a lot of attention on the 10 deaths, and there's a lot of people there [at Astroworld] that were traumatized that are experiencing heavy PTSD and, on top of that, other massive injuries that oftentimes are not really discussed. But they have to live with those every day.' 'This is part of why we fight as well,' she adds. 'It's not just for the 10 deaths and the victims and our daughter, but it's also for people like our son that went through massive trauma himself and again, has to get up and figure out how to put one foot in front of the other as far as anxiety and the panic and just daily living. I feel for everybody that was there … so we fight for all of them.' The obvious next step the Dubiskis look forward to is seeing 'everything more under a microscope' to prevent more event pitfalls and festival tragedies going forward. One thing they're currently focusing on implementing at live outdoor gatherings is the Pink Bows Safe Spaces, a custom pink tent that includes furniture, AC cooling units, and noise-cancelling headphones, as well as access to licensed mental health therapists and a team of volunteers. 'So, whether you're hot and you need to get out of the sun and have a drink of water, or dealing with something deeper like panic attacks or anxiety, 'It's a place to provide some solace,' that Brian says no one else in the U.S. is doing. 'I've never heard more genuinely passionate thank yous from people attending an event that say, 'Wow, thanks. This is cool.' Or, 'Thanks for having this here. Why is this not everywhere?'' Brian says of efforts so far, which have been held at festivals in cities like Houston, San Antonio and Dallas. 'That feedback is really amazing and a light spot for us,' he adds, 'where we've just been in such a dark, traumatic experience. It's really nice to hear people genuinely thank our team for providing that.' The parents hope to continue hosting the designated spaces at more concert events and, one day, even facilities for sports games. More than that, though, they want to make sure, through the Pink Bows Foundation and the Astroworld memorial that still stands at NRG Park, people never forget what happened to their daughter and the other Astroworld victims. 'Sometimes when tragedies happen, people go on their way because it didn't affect them,' Michelle concludes. 'Having the memorial there is a constant reminder that lives were lost here. This is why we're doing what we're doing. I think it makes a huge difference.' Astroworld Was A Crowd Control Nightmare. Here's What Could Have Prevented It. 'Someone's Going To End Up Dead': New Report Details 'Chaos' Of Astroworld Fest Travis Scott Says Deadly Incident At Astroworld Festival 'Devastated' Him
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
What happened in the Astroworld tragedy? 6 takeaways from Netflix's new 'Trainwreck 'documentary
Trainwreck: The Astroworld Tragedy revisits the crowd crush that left 10 dead at Travis Scott's Astroworld Festival in 2021. The film claims that poor planning, ineffective stage placement, and slow responses from those in charge all exacerbated the severity of the event. Directed by Yemi Bamiro and Hannah Poulter, the documentary is now streaming on November 2021, 10 concertgoers died and hundreds were injured during a terrifying crowd crush that occurred during rapper Travis Scott's headlining set at Astroworld, an annual music festival in Houston hosted by the popular rapper. Now, roughly four years since that night, Netflix is exploring the myriad of alleged planning and personnel failures that resulted in the calamity with a new documentary, Trainwreck: The Astroworld Tragedy. Directed by Yemi Bamiro and Hannah Poulter, the film aims to capture the horrors of the evening and the specifics of what went wrong through interviews with Astroworld staff, concertgoers, and the friends and families of victims. (The Houston Police Department released a 1,266-page report on their investigation into the tragedy in 2023. A grand jury declined to indict Travis Scott, Live Nation, and other organizers on criminal charges. In 2024, Scott and Live Nation settled wrongful death lawsuits stemming from the incident.) Approach with caution if you're claustrophobic — the film's footage of attendees crushed in the chaos is hard to stomach. It also highlights commentary from Scott Davidson, a crowd safety expert recruited to work with Live Nation, who managed the festival, in the aftermath of the tragedy. Davidson says he was given a "treasure trove" of evidence, including site plans, emails, and text messages, to help in his investigation into Astroworld's failures. "I believe Astroworld 2021 was not an accident. It was an inevitability due to a lack of foresight and the abandonment of basic safety protocols," Davidson says in the documentary, adding that he was "shocked" by what he found. Below, we unpack the biggest bombshells from Trainwreck: The Astroworld Tragedy. Though the crush occurred during Scott's headlining set, Astroworld 2021 was a disaster from the minute the gates opened. Footage from the day in question shows attendees rushing the entrances, barreling past security, and knocking over metal detectors. While this kind of behavior isn't surprising, it's usually considered during the planning process. In the documentary, Mark Lentini, a former commander for the Houston Police Department, opines, "What was going on was so totally predictable, [but] there didn't seem to be any contingency plans or mitigating." Jackson Bush, who worked security at Astroworld 2021, says in the documentary that he was hired the evening before the festival started. He also claims that he was given no guidance onsite. "The only instructions that we had came from other workers that was working with us," he says. "They were like, 'Hey, they gonna rush the gates, so y'all be ready.'" The chaos at the entry points distracted the festival's security and attending police officers to such a degree that people without tickets began climbing fences and streaming onto the festival grounds. Several interviewees remark that this kind of chaos is to be expected at Scott's concerts. The rapper is known for riling up audiences, often encouraging them to climb onstage and bypass security. In 2015, Scott was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct after telling a Lollapalooza crowd to "put a middle finger up to security right now" and leap over security barriers during his set. Scott pleaded guilty and was sentenced to one year of court supervision, according to Rolling Stone. Kirby Gladstein, a photographer who worked Astroworld, says she was told by festival organizers to "lean into the fans and the chaos." Gladstein also notes that a promo video for the 2021 festival, which is shown in the documentary, contains footage of attendees breaking down fences trying to get in. "It was stressed to us that we try and match that energy, showing how crazy it all is," she says. "That type of energy," Davidson notes, "requires a high level of planning." According to Davidson, Live Nation sold 50,000 tickets to Astroworld "before they'd worked out how this number would be able to safely view Travis' set." Later, he cites a finding that Scott's stage only had viewing capacity for just 35,000. "They planned for many thousands more people than could safely view Travis' performance," claims Davidson, who adds that the full number of attendees remains unknown since so many unticketed people managed to slip inside. Davidson also cites text message exchanges he viewed between "key members" of Live Nation management who discussed not knowing how the festival would accommodate 50,000 people. "The sellable capacity for the venue was set by SMG Global and approved by the Houston Fire Department (HFD) before tickets went on sale," reads a statement from Live Nation shown at the end of The Astroworld Tragedy. "The number of tickets sold, and attendees on site did not exceed the approved capacity." One of the biggest failures of Astroworld 2021, according to Davidson, was the placement of Scott's stage, which could only be approached from the left-hand side. Since the stage had a T-shaped barrier system that split the viewing area down the middle — a common feature of festival stages — this meant the "configuration created a trap on the left-hand side of the stage." With proper signage and security, Davidson believes audiences could have been directed to circle around the rear of the viewing area to take a spot on the right-hand side. Instead, they all piled into the left-hand side. "And so the compression just built and built where people could not escape," explains Davidson. Related: Travis Scott, Drake, Live Nation sued over 'predictable, preventable' Astroworld tragedy This was compounded by the fact that Scott's stage was used only for Scott's set, meaning a huge influx of fans all streamed towards his stage around the same time. All of the attendees appearing in the documentary recall the terror of the crowd crush, which made it difficult to move or breath. As more and more bodies compress into each other, the risk of falling and being trampled increases exponentially. Several concertgoers recount the "stacked" bodies piling up around them during Scott's set. A medical examiner concluded that all 10 Astroworld deaths were caused by compression asphyxiation. Each of them was on the left side of the stage, according to the doc. "HFD, SMG Global, and the Houston Police Department (HPD) were aware of the event plans, which were developed in line with safety codes," reads a statement from Live Nation shown in the documentary. One of the more distressing revelations in the documentary concerns allegations that Live Nation representatives understood the severity of the situation but allowed the concert to go on anyway. As Davidson puts it, a "common denominator" in the Astroworld 2021 incidents was "a failure to speak truth to power." According to Davidson, only two Live Nation representatives had the authority to stop the show in the event of an emergency. He says this is a deviation from the norm: "Any key decision maker, from police, fire, EMS, or Live Nation, should've been able to very quickly initiate a show-stop process." According to ABC News, Houston Police was aware of trampling and multiple injuries as early as 9:30 p.m. Lentini says in the documentary that law enforcement was looking for a manager from Live Nation about potentially ending or delaying the concert, but "couldn't find him." As ABC notes, Houston Police saw the concert as a potential "mass casualty event" by 9:38 p.m. Per transcripts reviewed by Davidson, a Live Nation manager allegedly spoke to the audio engineer at 9:52 p.m., ordering the concert "shut down" by 10 p.m. Davidson notes the manager was aware of the severity of the situation by that point, quoting the manager as saying they witnessed "more crush victims than I've ever seen in my 25-year career." But the concert didn't stop at 10 p.m. Instead, it went on for at least another 12 minutes. As Davidson tells it, Astroworld organizers and police worried about triggering a "crowd panic" by stopping the concert abruptly. "The idea of a performance continuing while even on CPR in progress is underway is insane. Unprecedented," he says. Davidson also cites alleged text messages between Live Nation staffers that further underscore how serious they knew the crush was becoming. "Panic in people's eyes. This could get worse quickly," reads one. "Someone's going to end up dead," reads another. "The Festival Safety & Risk Director and HPD representatives agreed to and executed an early show stop," reads a statement from Live Nation. In the aftermath of the tragedy, conspiracy theories quickly spread online and in the news media. As the BBC reported at the time, several social media posts went viral by calling the event "Satanic," speculating that the crush was part of a "ritualistic sacrifice." Another prominent theory highlighted in the documentary blamed the medical emergencies on tainted drugs being injected into concertgoers' necks with a needle. As attendees note, these theories only served to distract from the actual causes, including poor planning and slow responses by those in authority. "These people did not die from a needle in their neck," says one concertgoer in the documentary. "The answers are right there in front of you. We're telling you what happened. Why are people not hearing us?" The Astroworld Tragedy is a harrowing watch, but there is one bright spot. Early in the film, we meet Sophia, a woman who had just gotten her nursing license weeks before the concert. We also meet Arturo, who suffered a heart attack during the show and, if not for Sophia's intervention, likely would have died. Years following the concert, the two remain close. "There's no way that this all happened and we don't talk afterwards," she says. "Hopefully we're friends forever," says Arturo. Trainwreck: The Astroworld Tragedy is currently streaming on the original article on Entertainment Weekly
Time Magazine
10-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Magazine
The True Story Behind Netflix's Trainwreck: The Astroworld Tragedy
In November 2021, the third Astroworld music festival commenced in Houston, Tex., the hometown of rap superstar Travis Scott. Scott had a personal affinity for the Six Flags AstroWorld theme park in Houston that had closed its doors in 2005, naming his six-time platinum certified 2018 album after it and holding the inaugural festival near the site of the demolished amusement park. After canceling the 2020 edition because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Astroworld 2021 promised to be bigger than the two editions before, expanding the festival from one day to two, while uniting tens of thousands of young fans who had missed out on valuable concert-going experiences since the pandemic began. 'It's a carefree world' is how concertgoer Kaia Redus describes the festival in Netflix's Trainwreck: The Astroworld Tragedy, which details how the Houston celebration turned into a death trap with 10 fatalities, with the youngest victim only nine years old, as well as hundreds of injuries. 'It was a concert you didn't want to miss, and you knew it was going to be fun,' explains Sophia Santana, another survivor, with enthusiasm and certainty. The feature-length documentary, releasing June 10, is the first in a weekly series that digs into big event meltdowns that made headlines, created corporate scandals, and often cost lives. Directed by Yemi Bamiro, the film includes interviews with survivors and experts and uses footage shot on concertgoers' phones to explain how such a massive crowd crush happened during Travis Scott's headlining performance and what happened in the aftermath. What led to the deaths at Astroworld? Astroworld was organized by LiveNation, the biggest live event promoter in the U.S. bar none, and the company was eager to capitalize on Scott's 'rager' brand when Astroworld returned. As The Astroworld Tragedy shows, footage of fans breaking down fences to get into the 2019 Astroworld was used to promote the festival's return. Kirby Gladstein, a returning festival photographer, recalls her team was instructed to lean into the chaos of Scott's performances. Gladstein seemed anxious to share her perspective on the temperature of the festival and how the organizers lost control, as she believes the blame lies at LiveNation's feet. 'They hold so much of this industry in the palm of their hand,' says Gladstein. 'By talking about what happened at Astroworld, I know that I'm jeopardizing my career, ultimately.' (No representative of LiveNation is interviewed in the documentary, though their responses are included in text at the end of the film, and include pointing to the roles of SMG Global and the Houston Fire Department in setting sellable capacity for the venue, and stating all relevant parties were aware of event plans and safety codes. The company released their only statement on the tragedy the day after it occurred, in 2021.) The Astroworld Tragedy interviews crowd safety expert Scott Davidson, onsite paramedic Jose Villegas, and security guards Jackson and Samuel Bush (who were only hired hours before the festival began) to paint a picture of the poor planning that contributed to the festival's death tally. The mainstage was unoccupied all day, meaning that fans could camp out for Scott for hours in the hot Houston sun. It also meant that thousands of fans traveled to the headline set from the same direction at the exact same time, creating the perfect conditions for crowd crushing. On the left-hand side of the stage, fans funnelled directly into a pen that added more pressure to fans against barriers with no route of escape. Beginning at 9 p.m., Scott appeared on stage and the crushing quickly worsened; the most upsetting footage of The Astroworld Tragedy is taken from cell phone videos shot inside the pen, showing fans being asphyxiated and crushed in real time while Scott's performance blares unaffected behind them – while Scott would later say he was aware of some fainting and disturbance, he claimed to not realise the gravity of the situation. How did Astroworld organizers respond to the crisis? 'Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show!' shout fans as Scott introduces a guest onstage. Despite concertgoers screaming for help en masse, climbing up to restricted areas to demand help from officials, and calling the police, the concert didn't end until an hour after Scott began performing onstage. Davidson concluded (and the documentary team consulted an additional crowd safety expert to verify his findings) that a major fault with the festival was that only two individuals had been delegated authority to stop the concert when it became dangerous, but as Davidson explains, 'any key decision-maker [...] should have been able to very quickly initiate a show stop process, what should have been as simple as a figurative or literal button being pushed.' Meanwhile, crush victims were struggling to breathe and stand up straight. 'I just remember thinking, 'Don't fall down because you won't make it back up,'' recalls Santana. The countdown to 10 p.m. was hectic and lethal, and Davidson quotes the transcript of a LiveNation manager speaking to the audio engineer, one of the only people who could speak directly to Scott onstage: 'We have four active CPRs going on. Two are most likely dead. It is very, very bad. There are more crush victims than I've ever seen in my 25-year career.' Mark Lentini, a former commander for the Houston Police, places the responsibility for the Astroworld tragedy on the festival organizers rather than the police response. He points out how completely predictable the chaos of unauthorized entry and jumping fences would have been to a properly organized festival team. But others see it differently; as Davidson explains, as the crisis was worsening, the Houston Police and LiveNation agreed to continue the concert for Drake to appear onstage to avoid 'trigger crowd panic'. 'The idea of a performance continuing while even one CPR in progress is underway is insane, unprecedented, not to mention multiple,' stresses Davidson. What was the aftermath? Travis Scott's statements on the tragedy were received as insincere by many survivors and victims' loved ones, who tearfully recount the moments at hospitals and reunification centers when they were informed of deaths. Since Astroworld, Scott has made only a few comments on the tragedy, but the song 'My Eyes' on his 2023 album Utopia references his perspective of the event, with one lyric that goes, 'If they just knew what Scotty would do to jump off the stage and save him a child.' In addition to Utopia, Scott has released a companion film Circus Maximus, and is currently nearing the end of a global tour—but Astroworld has not been held since 2021. A grand jury decided not to hold any individual criminally responsible for the tragedy, and the families of victims received out of court settlements for lawsuits brought against Scott and LiveNation. Since Astroworld, LiveNation has faced a host of other legal issues, including a lawsuit from the Department of Justice for monopolization of the music industry, another from the families of an artist who was murdered backstage at a festival, and criticism of their hostile arbitration rules. Netflix's documentary gets to the heart of how something as traumatic and confounding as the Astroworld crowd crush happened, but the questions it ends on—Why didn't someone stop it? Will it happen again?—are left terrifyingly unanswered.
