Trainwreck: The Astroworld Tragedy (2025) Movie Script
There's been a lot of buzz
about Travis Scott's Astroworld Festival.
Talk to any high schooler in Houston.
They're talking about this concert.
Astroworld!
We're young.
We want to live life to the fullest.
It was a concert
that you didn't want to miss.
It's a carefree world.
It's just anything goes.
Hey!
There's people that are just like you.
Yeah!
This is like a playground.
Like, this is crazy.
Should've been the best day of our lives.
But it was the worst.
Folks are coming out,
complaining of difficulty breathing.
Houston 911.
Help at the Astroworld concert,
now, please! I need help!
Stop the show!
You go to a concert to have fun.
I never thought that I would see death.
People are dead and hundreds others hurt.
Police in the United States
have opened a criminal investigation.
Victims were young,
in their teens and 20s.
When looking at the evidence in this case,
I was shocked by what I found.
I never spoke about it before,
but we're doing this
so that people will know the truth.
People don't die at festivals.
What the hell happened?
The world is starting to open up.
It's a beautiful thing for all music fans.
Festivals will finally start to happen.
Something that,
you know, is anticipated every year
and that's Travis Scott's
Astroworld Festival.
We knew that it was gonna be big.
Like, people are ready to party.
I was like,
"He's bringing back Astroworld?"
I just thought I had to be there.
Travis Scott is my favorite rapper.
His music is very hype.
So I would listen to Travis
before my games just to be ready to ball.
Basketball is my world, you know.
It is my ticket to college.
To see Travis get as big as he is today
is, like, inspiring to me.
Move! I told you to back up!
I was like, man, someone
who grew up in the same city as me...
Yeah! Travis Scott! Yes, sir!
...can take over the music industry.
Travis Scott!
It was like he was repping us.
Travis represents a lot for Houston.
Kids look up to him.
Houston has a little bit of everybody.
And I think that Travis,
he brings people from all over together.
This week has been dubbed Astroworld Week
with Travis Scott holding events
leading up to this weekend.
I'm Coco Dominguez at Minute Maid Park
where this is just one of the events
that is raising funds for the youth
ahead of Astroworld's third
annual festival happening this weekend.
Houston!
I cover feature stories here in Houston.
So I feature anything that's buzzing.
I've been covering Travis for a long time.
And he's a hip-hop rock star.
Just a kid just making it.
- Why give back to the community?
- Man, it's the only thing to do.
What's all this if you can't bring it back
to the community and share it with people?
And have fun, man?
He was born in the Houston scene,
but he took it to another level.
Hip-hop has always been going
against the system.
He was positioning himself
as that person to be like, yeah...
an I curse? "Fuck the system."
Everybody, jump, jump back!
Pull out the zip
Pull out the ride, yeah!
Travis Scott live is an experience.
Yeah! We so fuckin' high
Upper echelon, yeah!
His fans are called ragers,
and they look at him like he's God.
Like he's the messiah of music.
Five, four...
Take-off!
That rager element
comes from the mosh pits.
- Deep off in the main.
- M&M
He tells people, "Yo, if you came
to a Travis Scott show to look cool,
get the fuck out."
Because it's real.
He wants you to turn up.
Fuck that!
Bounce! Bounce! Bounce! Bounce
Bounce! Bounce! Bounce! Bounce!
Bounce! Bounce! Bounce! Bounce! Bounce!
You feel the energy off of him
because we feed into him,
but he feeds into us.
- Everybody in this, say Astroworld!
- Astroworld!
- Say Astroworld!
- Astroworld!
You get an overwhelming
sensation of, like, happiness.
Travis! Travis! Travis!
We're living in wild times right now.
People just want to be themselves.
He was in the right place
at the right time
to fit in that pocket for people.
And then Astroworld Festival
took him into outer space,
into the heavens, you know what I mean?
We don't get
a lot of festivals in Houston.
There was a huge buzz about it.
Then he did it again
at Astroworld Festival 2019.
Everything was bigger.
The artists were bigger.
2020 came, the pandemic happened.
The world shut down. Ah.
We didn't get Astroworld number three.
And then he wanted
to bring it back in 2021.
For the first time,
this would be a two-day event
with a ton of artists
playing across the two stages
and Travis playing the headline set.
All of us had been locked up for so long.
This was, "Let's go get it."
It's about to go down.
Manny, want one?
We knew it was gonna be
the biggest event in the whole year.
They had a great lineup.
You know, a boys trip is the best thing.
We had a group chat
and we planned everything out.
- Outfits.
- Shades.
Travis Scott had just dropped
some new music.
So we were listening to that,
getting ready to dance.
Our friend Rudy listened
to every type of music.
Music was very important to us
and connected all of us together.
We had gone to Astroworld
two years before that,
but Rudy hadn't gone before.
And he was excited.
He wanted to go and go. He couldn't wait.
This one looks really good.
Things opening up after COVID,
we were stoked like, "We're gonna to go."
There was nothing that we didn't want
to do more than be at that place.
Before the pandemic,
I loved going to experience music.
I was super excited
about going to Astroworld.
Like, "Oh my God! All this time,
we haven't been able to see."
"And all this good music has come out
and all these artists. We have to go."
I had just started nursing school.
I always wanted to help people.
Vaccination appointments!
Please drive to Dodger Stadium!
Three weeks before Astroworld,
I had just received
my license to practice nursing.
And what better way to celebrate
than going to Astroworld Fest?
It was a concert
that you didn't want to miss.
And you know it was gonna be fun.
There has been a lot of buzz
about Travis Scott's Astroworld Festival.
Tickets for the festival
sold out in 30 minutes.
This is the setup at NRG Park
where Travis Scott will be performing.
I've gotten ready for Astroworld.
I'm so excited.
I'm from Houston,
so we're going to get down right now...
- Show us what it's like to party!
- Yes, sir!
Aw!
- We slept what, three, four hours?
- Three hours.
You guys always get crazy.
Coming from a small town,
going to a huge city,
seeing all these artists
I never thought I would see in my life.
We were just so excited to go.
We got the wristbands.
- Yeah...
- Yes, sir.
We all met up early in the morning.
Just hyping each other up before the day.
It was my girlfriend Mikaela.
Her friend Bri.
She liked Travis, and I was like,
"Oh! Common ground."
Bri was just excited to see Travis
and enjoy the show.
I flew out for Astroworld from LA.
I really wanted to see Roddy Ricch.
I was really excited to see SZA.
Earth Wind & Fire,
Bad Bunny, Houston's Don Toliver,
and even Master P
are expected to be there.
Good luck if you don't have a ticket,
because the show is sold out.
Headed to Astroworld, man.
We got this, y'all. We out.
When I heard
that Astroworld 2021 was happening,
I immediately reached out to our team
and was like, "2021, are we back?"
"Because I'd like to be back."
I shot all of the previous Astroworld
festivals along with other photographers.
My entire career changed
once I was hired for Astroworld.
Because it proved to Live Nation
that I could be a part
of the festival team.
They hold so much of this industry
in the palm of their hand.
If you're working in live music,
there's a really high chance
that you're working for Live Nation.
So by talking
about what happened at Astroworld,
I know that I'm jeopardizing
my career, ultimately.
Astroworld 2021,
it was a Live Nation concert.
Live Nation is the driving force
in the live entertainment
industry globally.
Live Nation works with the most
iconic artists in the touring world.
Concerts, festivals,
artist management, and ticketing.
They're running the game.
We're the largest concert company
in the world by far.
So we think the festival business
is incredible business.
There's a boom going on in America.
Highest margin piece of our business.
So think of us as Disneyland for live.
Going into Astroworld,
hearing that Live Nation
is working with Travis,
was like, "Oh, all right."
He's valuable, he makes people money,
and he makes people feel good.
You can't beat that.
Live Nation are gonna see that,
and they're gonna be like,
"Word, let's work with him."
"He's one of the biggest stars.
Let's make this poppin'."
The morning
of the first day of the festival,
I was shocked
at how big the festival had grown.
There was a whole stage
dedicated to just Travis.
It wasn't gonna be used all day.
We were instructed
to lean into the fans and the chaos.
The promo video that they put out
showed footage from 2019
of the fans breaking down
the fences to get in.
Astroworld Fest in full swing
but now with extra security.
We want to show you what it looked like
when the festival opened its doors today.
It was stressed to us
that we try and match that energy,
showing how crazy it all is.
We got ready to shoot doors.
It's gonna be crazy.
We know kids are gonna run in.
They're gonna try and get to merch
or get on the barricade.
It was palpable,
the energy and the excitement.
We were working
as security guards at Astroworld in 2021.
A friend of mine had made a post asking,
"Do anybody want to work
the Travis Scott concert?"
I looked at my uncle like,
"You wanna do it?"
I didn't know much about Astroworld.
Just, you know, heard about Travis Scott.
I'm in the space where everything counts.
I'm 27 years old.
I got five children, and my finances
gotta make sense, you know?
So I was blowing the number up.
Like, "Look, I'm all the way ready.
I'm all the way prepared."
"If you're looking for somebody,
I'm the guy."
This all happened in literally
one and two o'clock in the morning.
The day before the concert.
They hit us back
and told us to wear all black.
And be there for 5:30
in the morning, and we were there.
The only instructions that we had
came from other workers
that was working with us.
And they were like,
"Hey, they're gonna rush the gates."
"So y'all be ready."
It started immediately,
as soon as they let the gates open.
And it didn't really stop.
Hey, they're rushing in.
Oh my God!
They in the festival!
Let's go.
We were going over the hill
to hold the barricades
and try to stop everybody from bombing in.
These fans were little.
Slow it down. Stop!
But there's so many.
It didn't matter how big you were.
It was more than what I had bargained for.
Kids are gonna be kids.
Young people do young people stuff.
Doesn't make it right or acceptable,
but I understand it.
Astroworld Festival paid
for the Houston Police Department
to provide police security.
We don't have any control
over the planning, the strategies,
security guards, any of that stuff.
We're there for law enforcement.
What was going on
was so totally predictable.
There didn't seem to be
any contingency plans or mitigating.
- Yes, sir!
- Yeah!
They lost all control of the entry points.
Oh!
People were getting in unticketed.
And it was just overwhelming chaos.
We worked on trying to just get
some control over this situation.
Get the fuck back!
Get back! Go. Go that way!
Travis Scott had developed a reputation.
We had seen crowd management issues
at other festivals.
Yeah!
Straight from Mexico
Call her Quintana
Come here, kid.
You tried to take my shoe?
You wanna be a thief?
Fuck him up!
Fuck that kid!
They're gonna catch you.
Don't be scared. Don't be scared!
Five, four...
We want rage! We want rage!
Chaos in the crowds at Lollapalooza.
All the security, back the fuck up!
A performer is charged
with causing the commotion
that sent fans over security barricades.
That type of energy
requires a high, high level of planning.
Generally speaking, you don't want
to go to a concert with me, you know.
Um, it's hard to turn off.
I provide public safety management
in high-risk environments.
In an ideal scenario, we're brought on
for the site design of an event.
More often than not, we're brought on
after some sort
of critical incident has occurred.
In the aftermath
of the Astroworld tragedy,
I was asked to work with Live Nation.
I wanted to look honestly
at what occurred.
I was in receipt
of a treasure trove of evidence.
This was not a case of missing red flags.
This was a case
of ignoring blaring warning sirens.
I was shocked by... by what I found.
Travis Scott's much-anticipated
Astroworld Festival is in full swing.
The event is two days
and is expected to attract
tens of thousands of music lovers.
We're here at motherfucking Astroworld.
We're lit. I just broke
two fingernails in the first hour.
Big Astroworld.
- Astroworld day!
- Let's go!
Hey, we are here.
It is day one Astroworld Fest.
How many times have you been here before?
This is our first time.
- Where are you from?
- I'm from Houston.
Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!
Who are you most excited to see?
Oh, my gosh. You go first.
A couple, but of course, Travis Scott.
It's a carefree world.
Hey!
Wanna walk around
with your clothes off? Do it.
You can do whatever you want
because you're in Astroworld now.
There's people that are
just like you who are just like...
Ah!
This isn't just a concert.
This is, like, a playground.
This is crazy. I liked it a lot.
So it was Mikaela, Bri, and Talia.
They were all having a really good time
because it was their first Astroworld.
Seeing the mountain,
you know it's gonna be a good show.
It just gave you more of a rush.
Like, "What does he have planned?"
So I was
on assignment for Billboard.
I was walking around the festival.
Everybody was enjoying the games.
Heave that ball!
Oh!
They had a mini rollercoaster.
It felt like a theme park.
Where in the world but Astroworld
Can you have so much fun?
Astroworld Six Flags in Houston
was a legendary theme park.
All of a sudden it closed down.
Turn out the lights. The party's over.
Thirty-seven years of Houston history
have come to a close.
Six Flags Astroworld has shut down
for good this evening.
Then Travis came into the picture
and started talking about it.
I grew up here.
I was inspired by Astroworld.
When they took it away, um, it kind of
took a big piece of my heart away.
It ended up becoming his album.
You know,
he kept building the lore of that.
That kind of awoken the kid in his fans.
The older you get, the more
you separate from your adolescence.
With Travis doing that,
he kind of brought us back to it.
We were so excited
that we were in Astroworld.
So we took pictures everywhere.
I remember I was so excited
I took a selfie in the porta-potty.
I was in the porta-potty,
but at Astroworld.
I need to see that. That's funny.
We were flying in the air.
Rudy would always like,
"Take me a picture!"
Find a spot. "Take me a picture."
He knew what trends were going on,
what the vibe was.
He had all the swag.
Look at the stage.
Hey!
Astroworld!
You guys gotta get the merch!
Get the merch! Yes, sir!
I was a really big Travis Scott fan.
And I loved the energy it brings.
If you really love the artist
and what they stand for,
you just want to represent them
in any way you can, you know.
So we waited four hours
in line for the merch.
It was under the scorching sun too.
It was pretty bad.
I held onto my merch the whole time.
And I have a really bad habit
of getting FOMO.
This is where
Travis Scott's gonna perform.
- We're checking it out.
- 8:45 we're gonna be right here.
So I just went immediately
to Travis' stage, and I camped it out.
I said!
Skrrt, skrrt on niggas
Skrrt up on niggas!
Skrrt down, you acting like me!
- She acting like...
- Acting like me
SZA was so much fun.
I... I danced. I was singing my heart out.
Baby, hold me
'ause I like the way you groove
SZA is, like, finishing her songs.
We know the set is almost over.
Everybody, have a good night!
We see people kind of start to leave.
We follow the people.
- Let's go!
- It's fucking Disneyland.
We're going to Travis' set.
Let's go.
I was like, "Let me make sure
I get to a good spot for Travis."
You had to turn this corner.
And once you turned the corner,
it was just boom.
I was just like, "Wow."
We sort of just followed
that group of people, you know?
But that's when it started
getting pretty hectic.
We lost each other.
Wow, this place is fucking dope.
When I agreed to work Astroworld,
I was excited.
I thought I would just show up
as a paramedic. Just walk around.
Enjoy some music,
make some easy money.
You know, because I've always told myself,
if I have to do real paramedic work,
someone else is having a really bad day.
When we arrived at the stage,
there was a countdown clock.
It was counting down
until Travis Scott came out.
And I just remember thinking,
"We gotta get closer
before the timer goes, so we can see him."
"It's gonna get crazy.
You're gonna have a great time."
Okay, let's go!
So once that clock got up,
it got a little bit tighter.
Yeah!
When it got to that last minute,
it got even more tighter.
USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!
It's time to see Travis Scott.
People were trying to get in the front.
Appreciate it.
We're trying to tell Manny and Marshall,
"Hey, we're here.
Come with us. We got a good spot."
I couldn't get close to them.
It was so quick,
so quick, that it just got packed.
Mikaela's looking at my face like,
"Is this normal?"
Well, we're here, Astroworld.
I'm fucking dying out of breath
in this bitch.
- And everybody else is dying...
- Get him up!
And I'm kind of just like,
"This really isn't normal."
Ten, nine, eight,
seven, six, five, four, three, two, one...
The music started playing
and everyone just...
You just felt your whole body
just move forward.
Let's go!
Go! Go! Go! Go!
Twelve-figure estate plan
That was the escape plan
But hate investigatin'
That shit was a--
I stopped the facin'
'Cause shit just start erasin'
It opened gates
And this shit just start paradin'
He came out to "Escape Plan."
Let's go!
It felt like an earthquake.
My body was jumping up like this.
It was wild.
And of course, he's giving that
to his fans. He wants that back.
Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go!
During that first minute,
whenever Travis just entered the stage.
And then everyone's really hype.
And everyone's body moves forward.
And then the wave comes back.
It's stuck like magnets do
I put you in that magnitude
I embrace the pussy
I'm not tryna embarrass you
That was like being stuffed
into one little spot
and just being squeezed.
Houston!
Yeah!
I'm like, "Oh, my God. I can't breathe."
"I can't take a deep breath."
It was full-blown panic.
I started to feel a certain fear.
That's when I feel like I was like,
"Hold on. This is not okay."
She can't breathe!
I was center stage.
It's, like, secured area
where they were supposed to be empty
to allow for medical personnel
and security to get through.
People were already coming over the edge.
Give me your other hand!
That's typical
in any concert that I've been to.
People get hot.
They get tired. They pass out.
I didn't know it was gonna happen
to this magnitude.
People just kept coming and coming.
When we got to the main stage situation,
it was crazy.
Anywhere you look, you seen somebody
either hyperventilating, changing colors,
or that wanted help out of there.
I had helped out maybe 20 people
in my little section right there,
just me alone.
I was positioned
in the left-hand of the cross.
Once Travis was on stage,
I kind of just went into work mode,
like everybody else.
And tried to get my shots,
trying to do what I was told,
which was lean into the chaos.
There were people
wanting to come over the railing.
When I saw the condition
they were in when they were coming over,
I... thought,
"It must be really bad up there."
It became overwhelming real fast.
And I remember thinking to myself,
"What the hell is going on?"
One thing that was different
about Astroworld 2021
was that Travis had kept his own stage
unused all day until his performance.
This meant thousands of concertgoers
moved to his stage at the same time.
Compounding this dangerous situation
was the fact that the concertgoers
were approaching the stage from the side,
pushing into a T-shaped barrier system.
This was supposed to make the stage safer.
But instead,
its configuration created a trap
on the left-hand side of the stage.
And so the compression
just built and built
where people could not escape.
People were pushing left,
people were pushing right,
to the back, to the front.
There was just no space.
I wasn't even, like, breathing right,
so I had to look up,
trying to calm my breathing down.
It was a nightmare.
That's the best way I could put it.
Well, Rudy was behind me the whole time.
Rudy told me, "I can't breathe, man."
And I just told him, "Try and relax, man."
"Just drink some water."
The crowd was swaying,
and I was swaying with the crowd
because it was so tight
I had no control over my body.
And I just remember thinking,
"Don't fall down
because you won't make it back up."
Help! Please! Help!
One of those waves just hit
both me and Bri.
We all fell to our backs.
I could hear her in pain.
You know, asking, "Help me get out,"
and stuff like that.
I was the second layer.
There was people under me.
And then me falling on my back,
and then people stacking on top of me.
And I felt like
the more I kept fighting it,
the more I was wasting energy.
Like if you're holding
your breath underwater.
I could feel
the oxygen just leaving my body.
All those pains,
all those panicking moments. Um...
I'm sorry, I just...
Um...
- Help!
- I know! We're trying!
Help, help! Help! Help! Help! Help! Help!
Houston 911,
do you need medical, police, or fire?
We're at the Astroworld concert.
It's getting really fucking dangerous.
It needs to stop.
- What are you reporting?
- Everyone's piled on each other.
Wait, you're good.
Man. It was crazy, man.
There's people over here
screaming for help.
But then you look to the right,
and there's people having a fun time.
The rest of the people seemed to have
no idea what was going on.
Bounce!
Everybody!
Help!
Help! Help!
Yo!
I don't know how long I was
under there but it felt like forever.
And then people moved off of me.
I saw someone's face. They looked at me.
He pulled me out.
How am I gonna get up? Oh, shit.
And I just remember
feeling so many different things.
Where's Mikaela?
Uh, did Bri get out?
I looked for Mikaela. I found her.
She was asking me questions.
"Where's everybody? You saw them get out?"
I knew where I saw Bri.
Anyone who was at the same level as me
was not receiving oxygen.
I just remember kind of panicking in
that moment, like, let's try to stop this.
I went up the ladder
to get on the camera platform.
I was just yelling, "Stop the show."
- People are fucking dying!
- Get the fuck down, bitch.
Y'all weren't in there, bro!
Shut the fuck up!
Y'all weren't in there.
People are fucking dying.
I'm trying to save somebody's life.
That's somebody's kid.
- Two hands to the sky.
- I want to save them.
Calm down.
I felt like nobody was on my side.
Except there was this one person.
And then I was like, "I'm not alone."
- There's someone dying!
- Stop the show!
Stop the show! Stop the show!
I felt like I'm helpless.
I knew
Bri was in that area still struggling.
I just wanted to find some help.
Yeah
Custom the things
Custom the wings
I had to custom the vibe
I get pulled
to a patient that's on the ground.
And I cannot ascertain a pulse.
I need to start CPR.
I needed a life pack, a defibrillator.
I needed a lot of stuff.
I key up my radio, and I'm communicating
with command center.
"I have a patient down.
CPR is in progress."
They were a little shocked
and taken aback.
Because they asked me to repeat,
"Hey, did you say CPR in progress?"
They have to stop the show
because there's people trampled.
They're not breathing.
Multiple reports of people being injured.
We have another report of a cardiac
situation with CPR by the stage.
In the commotion, the pressure of people,
I... I lost my balance, and I fell.
I fell on something. I fell on someone.
And I just remember feeling,
like, pressure.
Like... Like... Like...
Because people were falling on me.
Hey! Help!
I remember looking up
and just being like, "I'm gonna die here."
And then someone saw my hand.
And they helped me up.
And I had got myself together,
and I'm still shocked
because I'm like, "What just happened?"
Around that time,
people were starting to pile up
around me.
It almost made me feel like
I was going crazy,
like it wasn't actually happening,
because surely, they would stop the show.
If it was as bad as it looked,
they would stop the show, right?
Travis!
Travis Scott is playing this whole time.
I was in shock, I was shaking.
And at this point, I was like,
"I have to be out there helping people
because I'm a registered nurse."
And there was this guy on the floor.
I do my assessment on him.
He has a pulse, but it's really faint.
I grab his legs,
and I just remember putting them up.
I'm doing sternum rubs.
I was like, "I really hope this works.
I really, really hope this works."
And then his chest went from not moving
to, like, rising and falling.
His eyes opened up.
Like, "He's breathing!
He's breathing! He's opening his eyes!"
I'm like..."Okay."
I was fighting for my life at that point.
I was practically
being suffocated to death.
What led up to me passing out
was like a heart attack.
The doctors really had to explain to me
what had really happened.
And I was like, "Holy shit,
she, you know, brought me back to life."
"She was there for me."
And I'm like, "God bless her."
Yeah.
Oh, oh, oh...
Play it slowly. Somebody help him.
Somebody passed out right here.
Somebody passed out right here.
Hold on. Don't touch him.
Everybody, just back up.
There was a part where he stopped.
I was a few feet away from him.
Somebody jump in.
Come on, security. Let's get in there.
Yeah
I remember seeing
this kid being carried out.
Normally, you see people carried out,
they're all nestled in the person
or they got their arms or legs,
and they're taking them out.
I've never seen anybody carried out
the way that this kid got carried out.
Yeah
Yeah
Yeah
And it looked like
Travis is trying to process it
and try to figure out what to do next.
Stop the show!
Standing in the ocean
90210, 90210
It felt like a horror movie.
You see people going like this.
You can hear the screams.
You don't see this?
Then he goes back to performing.
And I'm like,
"No. What are you doing, bro?"
Any key decision maker
from police, fire, EMS or Live Nation
should have been able to very quickly
initiate a show stop process,
what should have been as simple
as a literal
or figurative button being pushed.
But what made it confusing
was that according
to the event operations plan,
there were only two people
from Live Nation
that had the delegated authority
to stop the show.
We're only hearing what was coming
through the police line.
They were looking
for the manager from Live Nation,
trying to locate him
and to either end the concert
or delay the concert,
and they could not find him.
Stop the show! Stop the show!
Man...
New York City has birthed
a lot of good people.
And this person was
a really good friend of mine.
And he was going...
I've seen numerous artists stop a show.
And not just stop here or there,
make sure somebody's okay,
but stop the show.
And nobody was doing that.
My bitch love coco
Yeah
Woo back, baby
Let's go, y'all
Let me see some
Okay, okay
You cannot say Pop
And forget the Smoke
I'm from the Floss
Where niggas tote
They couldn't be Crips
Droppin' the cho
I gotta laugh
'Cause these niggas jokes
They're like, who these niggas?
Who these niggas? I don't know
Oh, what?
We eventually make it to the medical tent,
and I continue chest compressions.
I ended up getting a pulse back,
and we had vital signs.
We had blood pressure, which was great.
I have this, like,
sense of relief where I can just...
...kind of rest and relax.
And when I look up to assess
what's going on around me,
to my right, there's two other patients
being worked on.
Behind me,
there's another patient being worked on.
And if I look down the medical tent,
there were two more patients
being worked on.
Anything can happen at the night show
At the night show
And the evidence shows
that a manager from Live Nation
finally went backstage
and talked to an audio engineer.
I have a transcript of what was said.
When Travis Scott performs,
that audio engineer has the ability
to speak into his ears.
You know what?
We don't know what was actually
said to Travis after that.
Houston, I wanna see
the motherfuckin' rage, and Chase B...
But then, amid this chaos,
a different conversation takes place.
This time between police and Live Nation,
allowing the concert more time.
And in that time, Drake comes on stage.
The police and organizers said
they didn't want to trigger crowd panic
by stopping abruptly,
but people were dying.
The idea of a performance continuing
while even one CPR in progress is underway
is insane.
Unprecedented.
Not to mention, multiple.
You a little Post Oak baby
You a little 48 baby.
Got a little candy in her pocket
She gon' take off...
Of all the things
that trouble me about this case...
that's one thing I can't get past.
How could they make that decision?
Houston, Texas! My name is Travis.
Everybody, I love y'all.
Make it home safe.
Good night!
As soon as that concert finished,
it was so chaotic.
There was ambulances everywhere.
- Move!
- Open up!
I immediately started calling Raul,
calling Manny, texting the group chat.
I got the messages,
"Where are y'all? Let's meet here."
Bro, look at this shit.
Got the helicopters everywhere.
Everybody started
slowly getting there, but Rudy.
That was so strange to me
because the whole time I had thought,
"Oh, he got out."
You know, he made it out safe.
But he's the only one missing.
That's when I hit full panic.
I just started running towards
the emergency and all the ambulances.
- Move!
- That's what we're doing.
Move the fuck out of the way!
There was no sign of him.
So I start calling hospitals.
This hospital answer me.
They say that they do have
someone under my friend's name.
There was no information
due to us not being family.
So that's when I called Rudy's mom.
His friends called me.
And I tell them, "Where's Rudy?"
They say, "We don't know."
Then I had a bad feeling.
But at the same time I said,
"No, it's not possible. It can't be."
His older brother says to me,
"Mother, you have to go to Houston."
I tell his stepfather, "We have to go."
On my way, I kept saying,
"Rudy has to be okay. He has to be fine."
This is a... a tragic night.
And we had scores of individuals
that were injured here in this event.
If your relative,
family member was at this event,
and you have not spoken
to that individual,
go to the reunification center.
We will have units there
available to assist.
We were frantically looking for Bri.
We end up finding out that
Bri was getting rushed to the hospital.
Right when we get there,
her family
just starts crying
like really, really loud.
We're thinking,
"Oh, they're still trying."
"It's not over yet."
"There's still an opportunity
for her to be saved."
So we're still waiting.
Waiting for some good news.
Until they come back and they're just,
"Yeah, we can't do anything."
Everyone just, like, dropped to the floor.
I just remember crying...
and feeling like this is
the worst night of my life. This is...
I felt defeated.
I thought I had everything figured out
up until that point.
We arrived
at that address.
"Where is my son?"
"I want to see him."
I run into a cop at the door.
He grabs me, and I say to him,
"Where is my son?"
"Is he okay?"
And he says, "No, he's passed away."
So that's when I just lost it.
I was screaming.
What am I gonna tell his siblings?
What am I gonna tell his friends?
What am I gonna say
to my heart, to my soul?
They stole my light.
They stole a part of my heart.
I couldn't bear it.
And so far, I still can't.
It's a pain
that I don't wish on any mother.
If you're just waking up
and haven't watched the reports,
we know
that at least eight people are dead
and hundreds others hurt
during opening night
of rapper Travis Scott's Astroworld.
So many unanswered questions
right now like,
"What caused these eight people to die?"
It's really hard
because I've been following Travis' fans
for a really long time.
You know, they're good kids.
We came back the next day.
It was an active crime scene
with a large perimeter.
We had to secure the perimeter
and spent most of the day
just gathering information,
take pictures and measurements.
At the time, we didn't know
what had actually happened.
We had to investigate everything
and kinda eliminate everything.
The next morning,
we got a text from Live Nation
that day two wasn't happening.
And that we were going to have a meeting.
They didn't really touch on
what had happened.
For me, it was more about
not talking to the press,
not posting, not making
any sort of public comment on it.
I just thought, like,
they were trying to cover their asses
and make sure that we didn't say
anything that could hurt them.
I want to send condolences to the family.
This is now a criminal investigation.
We leave no stones unturned.
A lot of narratives out there right now.
A lot of them.
Someone allegedly injected a police
officer with some type of substance.
...was injecting other people with drugs.
A bad batch of illegal drugs.
This narrative is going around
that many people were on drugs,
and that's what caused this.
These people did not die
from a needle in their neck.
That's not why what happened happened.
The answers are in front of you.
We're telling you what happened.
Like, why are people not hearing us?
I'm waiting on Travis.
I'm waiting to see how he plays this.
I want to send out prayers to the...
...to the ones that was lost last night.
You know, my mans... my fans like...
my fans really mean the world to me,
and I always really want to leave them
with a positive experience.
Anytime I can make out,
you know, anything that's going on,
I'll stop the show and...
help them get the help
they need, you know?
Um...
I could never imagine
the severity of the situation.
An apology video,
it was like a slap in the face
to me, to everyone who suffered.
Like it wasn't really like...
You know, he made it because he had to.
"Oh, well, I'm sorry, guys.
Catch you at the next one."
That's what the vibes were to me.
It just looked bad.
It looked really bad, and you didn't look
like a superhero like you once did.
A 9th person has died
in connection
with the Astroworld concert tragedy.
22-year-old Bharti Shahani,
a senior at Texas A&M,
was declared dead last night
after being on life support
since Friday's event.
The youngest victim
crushed in the crowd surge
has succumbed to his injury.
Nine-year-old Ezra Blount has died.
He had been in a medically induced coma.
Ezra is now the 10th and youngest person
to die from the disaster.
The more I see with all of this,
the more damning all of it is.
He wanted this mob mentality chaos,
and it killed people.
A new development now,
Nike is delaying the release
of a sneaker collaboration
with Travis Scott amid the tragedy.
There is a petition circulating
asking that Scott be removed
from the popular Coachella music festival.
You fail to provide
a safe atmosphere at your show,
and your fans die right in front of you.
And you treat them
as completely worthless.
There was so much noise around Travis
that eventually, he had no choice
but to come out and defend himself.
People said they collectively heard
folks screaming "help"
every time you stopped the song
to get your attention.
Did you... Did you hear
any of those screams?
Nah, man. And you know, it's so crazy
because I'm that artist too.
Anytime you can hear something like that,
you want to stop the show.
I just didn't hear that.
Was there ever any communication to you
on stage that you should end this?
Well, yeah. They told me
right after the guests get off stage,
"We're gonna end the show."
And that's what we did.
Other than that,
there was no other communication.
- So they didn't say, "Stop now?"
- No.
- Nobody said, "Stop now."
- Gotcha.
You know, a lot of the criticism
from the tragedy,
they say is in the poor planning
and understaffing of the event.
As an artist, do you have
any involvement in any of that?
Well, I mean, as an artist,
you just do the creative.
You know, I just can control
what I can on the stage,
and you have the professionals control
what they can in the crowd.
This notion that Travis had the ability
to stop the concert is ludicrous.
The only two people that have
the authority to stop the concert
were the executive producer
and the concert producer.
For so many
to just think Travis is at fault,
you're creating a void for a lot of people
that organized that concert
to step back and not even be in the light.
It's the first time I've been back.
I can see all of it.
I say whoever had any parts
in organizing and putting it together
should be accountable.
Live Nation,
you guys were in charge of this.
What was the failure?
49 lawsuits filed in Harris County
in connection to the tragedy
against Live Nation,
Astroworld's promoter.
Rapper Travis Scott,
Apple Music, and Epic Records
are among those facing
a $750-million lawsuit.
One lawsuit claims the festival was
a "predictable and preventable tragedy."
We will make sure that they get justice
because this should have
never, ever happened.
In the months afterwards,
Live Nation got in touch with me.
I knew the venue.
I knew the event. I knew the politics.
I could quickly make sense
of what happened.
I was given text messages
between executives to emails.
Documentation and site plans,
thousands of photographs and videos,
all of which have been made public.
I believe Astroworld 2021
was not an accident.
It was an inevitability
due to the lack of foresight
and the abandonment
of basic safety protocols.
To understand what happened,
you have to go back to the beginning.
Live Nation reportedly sold
50,000 tickets to the festival.
But these tickets were sold
before they'd worked out
how this number would be able
to safely view Travis' set.
Following the tragedy,
experts for the plaintiffs
examined the evidence
and believed there was viewing capacity
for just 35,000 concertgoers
at the main stage.
Which would mean they planned
for many thousands more people
than could safely view
Travis' performance.
And to compound that,
the moment they lost control of the gates,
there's now an unknown number
of people at the festival.
In the days leading up to the event,
we can actually see text messages
between key members
of this management team.
Expressing 50,000 people
are not going to fit here.
They knew this was going to be an issue.
So not only was Travis' stage
in danger of being over capacity,
this poorly designed site led to people
approaching the stage from the side
and getting trapped in an area where
they were crushed, unable to breathe.
All ten fatalities were caused
by compression asphyxiation in this area.
Further text messages, sent just minutes
before Travis got on stage
show that Live Nation was aware
of the tragedy that was unfolding.
But they failed to act
before it was too late.
In all the failures of Astroworld,
a common denominator is
a failure to speak truth to power.
There were
many missed opportunities to speak up.
Somebody to raise their hand
and say, "Time out."
"This doesn't make sense.
We're gonna hurt somebody."
It was just a sadness in our city
because this is our festival.
You didn't have to know somebody
to be affected
because it's affected,
you know, our community.
My love for Travis was definitely
at one point boiling hot.
But now...
Hate's a strong word,
but I just... I can't support that anymore.
For the first time in my life, I felt,
like, true depression and true anxiety...
because I didn't think
I was more deserving
of other people to make it out.
Why me and why not them?
Thank God I have another chance to live
the life that I do now because of her.
- Oh, my God!
- Hi!
- You scared me! Hey, Sophia!
- Hi!
Oh, my God.
There's no way this happened,
and we don't talk afterwards.
That we're not in each other's lives
after all this just happened.
- There you go. You won.
- I won!
You got the two out of three.
Fair enough.
Our connection is so strong. Like
hopefully, we're... we're friends forever.
I'm just happy you're here.
I was 18 years old
whenever Astroworld happened.
My life has completely changed
from that moment.
Just the fact that Bri passed away
put me down, like, a dark depression.
I was gonna go to school
because I was gonna play basketball.
And I just gave up on it all.
I think about that day all the time.
What I did too slow
or what I wish I did first.
When I relive that moment,
um, trying to change my actions,
hoping for a different outcome,
but it's always the same outcome.
It could have been preventable.
It's still difficult
to talk about our friend's passing.
- For Rudy.
- For Rudy.
For Rudy.
We said that he brought people together.
After that,
he brought even more people together.
The whole city.
His funeral was so big.
Everyone was there.
Every day, I go to the grave.
They ask me why I go so much.
I say, "Let me live my pain."
It's the mother's pain.
Seeing my mom suffer every day
hurts us.
A lot.
Because we too are feeling that same pain.
As a family we share the same pain.
I say my prayers for him.
He knows
we'll see him soon.
I wish there were changes
because of what happened
with Rudy and the other people.
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.
He always motivated us
to reach for higher goals.
And if we were scared, he would say,
"Just do it, man. Don't be scared."
He deserves justice.
Someone should be accountable.
We don't ever want it to get lost
that Live Nation is the largest
concert promoter in the world.
They do these every day.
We gotta be talking
to the industry leader.
That's the only way you get change.
That's the only way we save lives.
We don't just point at the little people,
we point at all of them,
and we don't let the big people get away.
There has to be some level
of accountability that's industry-wide.
And that's not
your stock price dipping momentarily.
That's not you missing out
on sponsorship deals.
We have to learn from this.
Otherwise, it'll happen again.
One thing that I find inspiring is
the young concertgoers
that stood up courageously
and advocated for one another.
Calling for action.
It's powerful.
Whoever cut the corners,
that's who I hold responsible.
I need to see that these people
get justice and that things change.
Will we ever get "I'm sorrys"?
I want people to listen.
I want people to hear us whenever we say,
"This is not okay.
This is not how concerts go."
about Travis Scott's Astroworld Festival.
Talk to any high schooler in Houston.
They're talking about this concert.
Astroworld!
We're young.
We want to live life to the fullest.
It was a concert
that you didn't want to miss.
It's a carefree world.
It's just anything goes.
Hey!
There's people that are just like you.
Yeah!
This is like a playground.
Like, this is crazy.
Should've been the best day of our lives.
But it was the worst.
Folks are coming out,
complaining of difficulty breathing.
Houston 911.
Help at the Astroworld concert,
now, please! I need help!
Stop the show!
You go to a concert to have fun.
I never thought that I would see death.
People are dead and hundreds others hurt.
Police in the United States
have opened a criminal investigation.
Victims were young,
in their teens and 20s.
When looking at the evidence in this case,
I was shocked by what I found.
I never spoke about it before,
but we're doing this
so that people will know the truth.
People don't die at festivals.
What the hell happened?
The world is starting to open up.
It's a beautiful thing for all music fans.
Festivals will finally start to happen.
Something that,
you know, is anticipated every year
and that's Travis Scott's
Astroworld Festival.
We knew that it was gonna be big.
Like, people are ready to party.
I was like,
"He's bringing back Astroworld?"
I just thought I had to be there.
Travis Scott is my favorite rapper.
His music is very hype.
So I would listen to Travis
before my games just to be ready to ball.
Basketball is my world, you know.
It is my ticket to college.
To see Travis get as big as he is today
is, like, inspiring to me.
Move! I told you to back up!
I was like, man, someone
who grew up in the same city as me...
Yeah! Travis Scott! Yes, sir!
...can take over the music industry.
Travis Scott!
It was like he was repping us.
Travis represents a lot for Houston.
Kids look up to him.
Houston has a little bit of everybody.
And I think that Travis,
he brings people from all over together.
This week has been dubbed Astroworld Week
with Travis Scott holding events
leading up to this weekend.
I'm Coco Dominguez at Minute Maid Park
where this is just one of the events
that is raising funds for the youth
ahead of Astroworld's third
annual festival happening this weekend.
Houston!
I cover feature stories here in Houston.
So I feature anything that's buzzing.
I've been covering Travis for a long time.
And he's a hip-hop rock star.
Just a kid just making it.
- Why give back to the community?
- Man, it's the only thing to do.
What's all this if you can't bring it back
to the community and share it with people?
And have fun, man?
He was born in the Houston scene,
but he took it to another level.
Hip-hop has always been going
against the system.
He was positioning himself
as that person to be like, yeah...
an I curse? "Fuck the system."
Everybody, jump, jump back!
Pull out the zip
Pull out the ride, yeah!
Travis Scott live is an experience.
Yeah! We so fuckin' high
Upper echelon, yeah!
His fans are called ragers,
and they look at him like he's God.
Like he's the messiah of music.
Five, four...
Take-off!
That rager element
comes from the mosh pits.
- Deep off in the main.
- M&M
He tells people, "Yo, if you came
to a Travis Scott show to look cool,
get the fuck out."
Because it's real.
He wants you to turn up.
Fuck that!
Bounce! Bounce! Bounce! Bounce
Bounce! Bounce! Bounce! Bounce!
Bounce! Bounce! Bounce! Bounce! Bounce!
You feel the energy off of him
because we feed into him,
but he feeds into us.
- Everybody in this, say Astroworld!
- Astroworld!
- Say Astroworld!
- Astroworld!
You get an overwhelming
sensation of, like, happiness.
Travis! Travis! Travis!
We're living in wild times right now.
People just want to be themselves.
He was in the right place
at the right time
to fit in that pocket for people.
And then Astroworld Festival
took him into outer space,
into the heavens, you know what I mean?
We don't get
a lot of festivals in Houston.
There was a huge buzz about it.
Then he did it again
at Astroworld Festival 2019.
Everything was bigger.
The artists were bigger.
2020 came, the pandemic happened.
The world shut down. Ah.
We didn't get Astroworld number three.
And then he wanted
to bring it back in 2021.
For the first time,
this would be a two-day event
with a ton of artists
playing across the two stages
and Travis playing the headline set.
All of us had been locked up for so long.
This was, "Let's go get it."
It's about to go down.
Manny, want one?
We knew it was gonna be
the biggest event in the whole year.
They had a great lineup.
You know, a boys trip is the best thing.
We had a group chat
and we planned everything out.
- Outfits.
- Shades.
Travis Scott had just dropped
some new music.
So we were listening to that,
getting ready to dance.
Our friend Rudy listened
to every type of music.
Music was very important to us
and connected all of us together.
We had gone to Astroworld
two years before that,
but Rudy hadn't gone before.
And he was excited.
He wanted to go and go. He couldn't wait.
This one looks really good.
Things opening up after COVID,
we were stoked like, "We're gonna to go."
There was nothing that we didn't want
to do more than be at that place.
Before the pandemic,
I loved going to experience music.
I was super excited
about going to Astroworld.
Like, "Oh my God! All this time,
we haven't been able to see."
"And all this good music has come out
and all these artists. We have to go."
I had just started nursing school.
I always wanted to help people.
Vaccination appointments!
Please drive to Dodger Stadium!
Three weeks before Astroworld,
I had just received
my license to practice nursing.
And what better way to celebrate
than going to Astroworld Fest?
It was a concert
that you didn't want to miss.
And you know it was gonna be fun.
There has been a lot of buzz
about Travis Scott's Astroworld Festival.
Tickets for the festival
sold out in 30 minutes.
This is the setup at NRG Park
where Travis Scott will be performing.
I've gotten ready for Astroworld.
I'm so excited.
I'm from Houston,
so we're going to get down right now...
- Show us what it's like to party!
- Yes, sir!
Aw!
- We slept what, three, four hours?
- Three hours.
You guys always get crazy.
Coming from a small town,
going to a huge city,
seeing all these artists
I never thought I would see in my life.
We were just so excited to go.
We got the wristbands.
- Yeah...
- Yes, sir.
We all met up early in the morning.
Just hyping each other up before the day.
It was my girlfriend Mikaela.
Her friend Bri.
She liked Travis, and I was like,
"Oh! Common ground."
Bri was just excited to see Travis
and enjoy the show.
I flew out for Astroworld from LA.
I really wanted to see Roddy Ricch.
I was really excited to see SZA.
Earth Wind & Fire,
Bad Bunny, Houston's Don Toliver,
and even Master P
are expected to be there.
Good luck if you don't have a ticket,
because the show is sold out.
Headed to Astroworld, man.
We got this, y'all. We out.
When I heard
that Astroworld 2021 was happening,
I immediately reached out to our team
and was like, "2021, are we back?"
"Because I'd like to be back."
I shot all of the previous Astroworld
festivals along with other photographers.
My entire career changed
once I was hired for Astroworld.
Because it proved to Live Nation
that I could be a part
of the festival team.
They hold so much of this industry
in the palm of their hand.
If you're working in live music,
there's a really high chance
that you're working for Live Nation.
So by talking
about what happened at Astroworld,
I know that I'm jeopardizing
my career, ultimately.
Astroworld 2021,
it was a Live Nation concert.
Live Nation is the driving force
in the live entertainment
industry globally.
Live Nation works with the most
iconic artists in the touring world.
Concerts, festivals,
artist management, and ticketing.
They're running the game.
We're the largest concert company
in the world by far.
So we think the festival business
is incredible business.
There's a boom going on in America.
Highest margin piece of our business.
So think of us as Disneyland for live.
Going into Astroworld,
hearing that Live Nation
is working with Travis,
was like, "Oh, all right."
He's valuable, he makes people money,
and he makes people feel good.
You can't beat that.
Live Nation are gonna see that,
and they're gonna be like,
"Word, let's work with him."
"He's one of the biggest stars.
Let's make this poppin'."
The morning
of the first day of the festival,
I was shocked
at how big the festival had grown.
There was a whole stage
dedicated to just Travis.
It wasn't gonna be used all day.
We were instructed
to lean into the fans and the chaos.
The promo video that they put out
showed footage from 2019
of the fans breaking down
the fences to get in.
Astroworld Fest in full swing
but now with extra security.
We want to show you what it looked like
when the festival opened its doors today.
It was stressed to us
that we try and match that energy,
showing how crazy it all is.
We got ready to shoot doors.
It's gonna be crazy.
We know kids are gonna run in.
They're gonna try and get to merch
or get on the barricade.
It was palpable,
the energy and the excitement.
We were working
as security guards at Astroworld in 2021.
A friend of mine had made a post asking,
"Do anybody want to work
the Travis Scott concert?"
I looked at my uncle like,
"You wanna do it?"
I didn't know much about Astroworld.
Just, you know, heard about Travis Scott.
I'm in the space where everything counts.
I'm 27 years old.
I got five children, and my finances
gotta make sense, you know?
So I was blowing the number up.
Like, "Look, I'm all the way ready.
I'm all the way prepared."
"If you're looking for somebody,
I'm the guy."
This all happened in literally
one and two o'clock in the morning.
The day before the concert.
They hit us back
and told us to wear all black.
And be there for 5:30
in the morning, and we were there.
The only instructions that we had
came from other workers
that was working with us.
And they were like,
"Hey, they're gonna rush the gates."
"So y'all be ready."
It started immediately,
as soon as they let the gates open.
And it didn't really stop.
Hey, they're rushing in.
Oh my God!
They in the festival!
Let's go.
We were going over the hill
to hold the barricades
and try to stop everybody from bombing in.
These fans were little.
Slow it down. Stop!
But there's so many.
It didn't matter how big you were.
It was more than what I had bargained for.
Kids are gonna be kids.
Young people do young people stuff.
Doesn't make it right or acceptable,
but I understand it.
Astroworld Festival paid
for the Houston Police Department
to provide police security.
We don't have any control
over the planning, the strategies,
security guards, any of that stuff.
We're there for law enforcement.
What was going on
was so totally predictable.
There didn't seem to be
any contingency plans or mitigating.
- Yes, sir!
- Yeah!
They lost all control of the entry points.
Oh!
People were getting in unticketed.
And it was just overwhelming chaos.
We worked on trying to just get
some control over this situation.
Get the fuck back!
Get back! Go. Go that way!
Travis Scott had developed a reputation.
We had seen crowd management issues
at other festivals.
Yeah!
Straight from Mexico
Call her Quintana
Come here, kid.
You tried to take my shoe?
You wanna be a thief?
Fuck him up!
Fuck that kid!
They're gonna catch you.
Don't be scared. Don't be scared!
Five, four...
We want rage! We want rage!
Chaos in the crowds at Lollapalooza.
All the security, back the fuck up!
A performer is charged
with causing the commotion
that sent fans over security barricades.
That type of energy
requires a high, high level of planning.
Generally speaking, you don't want
to go to a concert with me, you know.
Um, it's hard to turn off.
I provide public safety management
in high-risk environments.
In an ideal scenario, we're brought on
for the site design of an event.
More often than not, we're brought on
after some sort
of critical incident has occurred.
In the aftermath
of the Astroworld tragedy,
I was asked to work with Live Nation.
I wanted to look honestly
at what occurred.
I was in receipt
of a treasure trove of evidence.
This was not a case of missing red flags.
This was a case
of ignoring blaring warning sirens.
I was shocked by... by what I found.
Travis Scott's much-anticipated
Astroworld Festival is in full swing.
The event is two days
and is expected to attract
tens of thousands of music lovers.
We're here at motherfucking Astroworld.
We're lit. I just broke
two fingernails in the first hour.
Big Astroworld.
- Astroworld day!
- Let's go!
Hey, we are here.
It is day one Astroworld Fest.
How many times have you been here before?
This is our first time.
- Where are you from?
- I'm from Houston.
Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!
Who are you most excited to see?
Oh, my gosh. You go first.
A couple, but of course, Travis Scott.
It's a carefree world.
Hey!
Wanna walk around
with your clothes off? Do it.
You can do whatever you want
because you're in Astroworld now.
There's people that are
just like you who are just like...
Ah!
This isn't just a concert.
This is, like, a playground.
This is crazy. I liked it a lot.
So it was Mikaela, Bri, and Talia.
They were all having a really good time
because it was their first Astroworld.
Seeing the mountain,
you know it's gonna be a good show.
It just gave you more of a rush.
Like, "What does he have planned?"
So I was
on assignment for Billboard.
I was walking around the festival.
Everybody was enjoying the games.
Heave that ball!
Oh!
They had a mini rollercoaster.
It felt like a theme park.
Where in the world but Astroworld
Can you have so much fun?
Astroworld Six Flags in Houston
was a legendary theme park.
All of a sudden it closed down.
Turn out the lights. The party's over.
Thirty-seven years of Houston history
have come to a close.
Six Flags Astroworld has shut down
for good this evening.
Then Travis came into the picture
and started talking about it.
I grew up here.
I was inspired by Astroworld.
When they took it away, um, it kind of
took a big piece of my heart away.
It ended up becoming his album.
You know,
he kept building the lore of that.
That kind of awoken the kid in his fans.
The older you get, the more
you separate from your adolescence.
With Travis doing that,
he kind of brought us back to it.
We were so excited
that we were in Astroworld.
So we took pictures everywhere.
I remember I was so excited
I took a selfie in the porta-potty.
I was in the porta-potty,
but at Astroworld.
I need to see that. That's funny.
We were flying in the air.
Rudy would always like,
"Take me a picture!"
Find a spot. "Take me a picture."
He knew what trends were going on,
what the vibe was.
He had all the swag.
Look at the stage.
Hey!
Astroworld!
You guys gotta get the merch!
Get the merch! Yes, sir!
I was a really big Travis Scott fan.
And I loved the energy it brings.
If you really love the artist
and what they stand for,
you just want to represent them
in any way you can, you know.
So we waited four hours
in line for the merch.
It was under the scorching sun too.
It was pretty bad.
I held onto my merch the whole time.
And I have a really bad habit
of getting FOMO.
This is where
Travis Scott's gonna perform.
- We're checking it out.
- 8:45 we're gonna be right here.
So I just went immediately
to Travis' stage, and I camped it out.
I said!
Skrrt, skrrt on niggas
Skrrt up on niggas!
Skrrt down, you acting like me!
- She acting like...
- Acting like me
SZA was so much fun.
I... I danced. I was singing my heart out.
Baby, hold me
'ause I like the way you groove
SZA is, like, finishing her songs.
We know the set is almost over.
Everybody, have a good night!
We see people kind of start to leave.
We follow the people.
- Let's go!
- It's fucking Disneyland.
We're going to Travis' set.
Let's go.
I was like, "Let me make sure
I get to a good spot for Travis."
You had to turn this corner.
And once you turned the corner,
it was just boom.
I was just like, "Wow."
We sort of just followed
that group of people, you know?
But that's when it started
getting pretty hectic.
We lost each other.
Wow, this place is fucking dope.
When I agreed to work Astroworld,
I was excited.
I thought I would just show up
as a paramedic. Just walk around.
Enjoy some music,
make some easy money.
You know, because I've always told myself,
if I have to do real paramedic work,
someone else is having a really bad day.
When we arrived at the stage,
there was a countdown clock.
It was counting down
until Travis Scott came out.
And I just remember thinking,
"We gotta get closer
before the timer goes, so we can see him."
"It's gonna get crazy.
You're gonna have a great time."
Okay, let's go!
So once that clock got up,
it got a little bit tighter.
Yeah!
When it got to that last minute,
it got even more tighter.
USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!
It's time to see Travis Scott.
People were trying to get in the front.
Appreciate it.
We're trying to tell Manny and Marshall,
"Hey, we're here.
Come with us. We got a good spot."
I couldn't get close to them.
It was so quick,
so quick, that it just got packed.
Mikaela's looking at my face like,
"Is this normal?"
Well, we're here, Astroworld.
I'm fucking dying out of breath
in this bitch.
- And everybody else is dying...
- Get him up!
And I'm kind of just like,
"This really isn't normal."
Ten, nine, eight,
seven, six, five, four, three, two, one...
The music started playing
and everyone just...
You just felt your whole body
just move forward.
Let's go!
Go! Go! Go! Go!
Twelve-figure estate plan
That was the escape plan
But hate investigatin'
That shit was a--
I stopped the facin'
'Cause shit just start erasin'
It opened gates
And this shit just start paradin'
He came out to "Escape Plan."
Let's go!
It felt like an earthquake.
My body was jumping up like this.
It was wild.
And of course, he's giving that
to his fans. He wants that back.
Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go!
During that first minute,
whenever Travis just entered the stage.
And then everyone's really hype.
And everyone's body moves forward.
And then the wave comes back.
It's stuck like magnets do
I put you in that magnitude
I embrace the pussy
I'm not tryna embarrass you
That was like being stuffed
into one little spot
and just being squeezed.
Houston!
Yeah!
I'm like, "Oh, my God. I can't breathe."
"I can't take a deep breath."
It was full-blown panic.
I started to feel a certain fear.
That's when I feel like I was like,
"Hold on. This is not okay."
She can't breathe!
I was center stage.
It's, like, secured area
where they were supposed to be empty
to allow for medical personnel
and security to get through.
People were already coming over the edge.
Give me your other hand!
That's typical
in any concert that I've been to.
People get hot.
They get tired. They pass out.
I didn't know it was gonna happen
to this magnitude.
People just kept coming and coming.
When we got to the main stage situation,
it was crazy.
Anywhere you look, you seen somebody
either hyperventilating, changing colors,
or that wanted help out of there.
I had helped out maybe 20 people
in my little section right there,
just me alone.
I was positioned
in the left-hand of the cross.
Once Travis was on stage,
I kind of just went into work mode,
like everybody else.
And tried to get my shots,
trying to do what I was told,
which was lean into the chaos.
There were people
wanting to come over the railing.
When I saw the condition
they were in when they were coming over,
I... thought,
"It must be really bad up there."
It became overwhelming real fast.
And I remember thinking to myself,
"What the hell is going on?"
One thing that was different
about Astroworld 2021
was that Travis had kept his own stage
unused all day until his performance.
This meant thousands of concertgoers
moved to his stage at the same time.
Compounding this dangerous situation
was the fact that the concertgoers
were approaching the stage from the side,
pushing into a T-shaped barrier system.
This was supposed to make the stage safer.
But instead,
its configuration created a trap
on the left-hand side of the stage.
And so the compression
just built and built
where people could not escape.
People were pushing left,
people were pushing right,
to the back, to the front.
There was just no space.
I wasn't even, like, breathing right,
so I had to look up,
trying to calm my breathing down.
It was a nightmare.
That's the best way I could put it.
Well, Rudy was behind me the whole time.
Rudy told me, "I can't breathe, man."
And I just told him, "Try and relax, man."
"Just drink some water."
The crowd was swaying,
and I was swaying with the crowd
because it was so tight
I had no control over my body.
And I just remember thinking,
"Don't fall down
because you won't make it back up."
Help! Please! Help!
One of those waves just hit
both me and Bri.
We all fell to our backs.
I could hear her in pain.
You know, asking, "Help me get out,"
and stuff like that.
I was the second layer.
There was people under me.
And then me falling on my back,
and then people stacking on top of me.
And I felt like
the more I kept fighting it,
the more I was wasting energy.
Like if you're holding
your breath underwater.
I could feel
the oxygen just leaving my body.
All those pains,
all those panicking moments. Um...
I'm sorry, I just...
Um...
- Help!
- I know! We're trying!
Help, help! Help! Help! Help! Help! Help!
Houston 911,
do you need medical, police, or fire?
We're at the Astroworld concert.
It's getting really fucking dangerous.
It needs to stop.
- What are you reporting?
- Everyone's piled on each other.
Wait, you're good.
Man. It was crazy, man.
There's people over here
screaming for help.
But then you look to the right,
and there's people having a fun time.
The rest of the people seemed to have
no idea what was going on.
Bounce!
Everybody!
Help!
Help! Help!
Yo!
I don't know how long I was
under there but it felt like forever.
And then people moved off of me.
I saw someone's face. They looked at me.
He pulled me out.
How am I gonna get up? Oh, shit.
And I just remember
feeling so many different things.
Where's Mikaela?
Uh, did Bri get out?
I looked for Mikaela. I found her.
She was asking me questions.
"Where's everybody? You saw them get out?"
I knew where I saw Bri.
Anyone who was at the same level as me
was not receiving oxygen.
I just remember kind of panicking in
that moment, like, let's try to stop this.
I went up the ladder
to get on the camera platform.
I was just yelling, "Stop the show."
- People are fucking dying!
- Get the fuck down, bitch.
Y'all weren't in there, bro!
Shut the fuck up!
Y'all weren't in there.
People are fucking dying.
I'm trying to save somebody's life.
That's somebody's kid.
- Two hands to the sky.
- I want to save them.
Calm down.
I felt like nobody was on my side.
Except there was this one person.
And then I was like, "I'm not alone."
- There's someone dying!
- Stop the show!
Stop the show! Stop the show!
I felt like I'm helpless.
I knew
Bri was in that area still struggling.
I just wanted to find some help.
Yeah
Custom the things
Custom the wings
I had to custom the vibe
I get pulled
to a patient that's on the ground.
And I cannot ascertain a pulse.
I need to start CPR.
I needed a life pack, a defibrillator.
I needed a lot of stuff.
I key up my radio, and I'm communicating
with command center.
"I have a patient down.
CPR is in progress."
They were a little shocked
and taken aback.
Because they asked me to repeat,
"Hey, did you say CPR in progress?"
They have to stop the show
because there's people trampled.
They're not breathing.
Multiple reports of people being injured.
We have another report of a cardiac
situation with CPR by the stage.
In the commotion, the pressure of people,
I... I lost my balance, and I fell.
I fell on something. I fell on someone.
And I just remember feeling,
like, pressure.
Like... Like... Like...
Because people were falling on me.
Hey! Help!
I remember looking up
and just being like, "I'm gonna die here."
And then someone saw my hand.
And they helped me up.
And I had got myself together,
and I'm still shocked
because I'm like, "What just happened?"
Around that time,
people were starting to pile up
around me.
It almost made me feel like
I was going crazy,
like it wasn't actually happening,
because surely, they would stop the show.
If it was as bad as it looked,
they would stop the show, right?
Travis!
Travis Scott is playing this whole time.
I was in shock, I was shaking.
And at this point, I was like,
"I have to be out there helping people
because I'm a registered nurse."
And there was this guy on the floor.
I do my assessment on him.
He has a pulse, but it's really faint.
I grab his legs,
and I just remember putting them up.
I'm doing sternum rubs.
I was like, "I really hope this works.
I really, really hope this works."
And then his chest went from not moving
to, like, rising and falling.
His eyes opened up.
Like, "He's breathing!
He's breathing! He's opening his eyes!"
I'm like..."Okay."
I was fighting for my life at that point.
I was practically
being suffocated to death.
What led up to me passing out
was like a heart attack.
The doctors really had to explain to me
what had really happened.
And I was like, "Holy shit,
she, you know, brought me back to life."
"She was there for me."
And I'm like, "God bless her."
Yeah.
Oh, oh, oh...
Play it slowly. Somebody help him.
Somebody passed out right here.
Somebody passed out right here.
Hold on. Don't touch him.
Everybody, just back up.
There was a part where he stopped.
I was a few feet away from him.
Somebody jump in.
Come on, security. Let's get in there.
Yeah
I remember seeing
this kid being carried out.
Normally, you see people carried out,
they're all nestled in the person
or they got their arms or legs,
and they're taking them out.
I've never seen anybody carried out
the way that this kid got carried out.
Yeah
Yeah
Yeah
And it looked like
Travis is trying to process it
and try to figure out what to do next.
Stop the show!
Standing in the ocean
90210, 90210
It felt like a horror movie.
You see people going like this.
You can hear the screams.
You don't see this?
Then he goes back to performing.
And I'm like,
"No. What are you doing, bro?"
Any key decision maker
from police, fire, EMS or Live Nation
should have been able to very quickly
initiate a show stop process,
what should have been as simple
as a literal
or figurative button being pushed.
But what made it confusing
was that according
to the event operations plan,
there were only two people
from Live Nation
that had the delegated authority
to stop the show.
We're only hearing what was coming
through the police line.
They were looking
for the manager from Live Nation,
trying to locate him
and to either end the concert
or delay the concert,
and they could not find him.
Stop the show! Stop the show!
Man...
New York City has birthed
a lot of good people.
And this person was
a really good friend of mine.
And he was going...
I've seen numerous artists stop a show.
And not just stop here or there,
make sure somebody's okay,
but stop the show.
And nobody was doing that.
My bitch love coco
Yeah
Woo back, baby
Let's go, y'all
Let me see some
Okay, okay
You cannot say Pop
And forget the Smoke
I'm from the Floss
Where niggas tote
They couldn't be Crips
Droppin' the cho
I gotta laugh
'Cause these niggas jokes
They're like, who these niggas?
Who these niggas? I don't know
Oh, what?
We eventually make it to the medical tent,
and I continue chest compressions.
I ended up getting a pulse back,
and we had vital signs.
We had blood pressure, which was great.
I have this, like,
sense of relief where I can just...
...kind of rest and relax.
And when I look up to assess
what's going on around me,
to my right, there's two other patients
being worked on.
Behind me,
there's another patient being worked on.
And if I look down the medical tent,
there were two more patients
being worked on.
Anything can happen at the night show
At the night show
And the evidence shows
that a manager from Live Nation
finally went backstage
and talked to an audio engineer.
I have a transcript of what was said.
When Travis Scott performs,
that audio engineer has the ability
to speak into his ears.
You know what?
We don't know what was actually
said to Travis after that.
Houston, I wanna see
the motherfuckin' rage, and Chase B...
But then, amid this chaos,
a different conversation takes place.
This time between police and Live Nation,
allowing the concert more time.
And in that time, Drake comes on stage.
The police and organizers said
they didn't want to trigger crowd panic
by stopping abruptly,
but people were dying.
The idea of a performance continuing
while even one CPR in progress is underway
is insane.
Unprecedented.
Not to mention, multiple.
You a little Post Oak baby
You a little 48 baby.
Got a little candy in her pocket
She gon' take off...
Of all the things
that trouble me about this case...
that's one thing I can't get past.
How could they make that decision?
Houston, Texas! My name is Travis.
Everybody, I love y'all.
Make it home safe.
Good night!
As soon as that concert finished,
it was so chaotic.
There was ambulances everywhere.
- Move!
- Open up!
I immediately started calling Raul,
calling Manny, texting the group chat.
I got the messages,
"Where are y'all? Let's meet here."
Bro, look at this shit.
Got the helicopters everywhere.
Everybody started
slowly getting there, but Rudy.
That was so strange to me
because the whole time I had thought,
"Oh, he got out."
You know, he made it out safe.
But he's the only one missing.
That's when I hit full panic.
I just started running towards
the emergency and all the ambulances.
- Move!
- That's what we're doing.
Move the fuck out of the way!
There was no sign of him.
So I start calling hospitals.
This hospital answer me.
They say that they do have
someone under my friend's name.
There was no information
due to us not being family.
So that's when I called Rudy's mom.
His friends called me.
And I tell them, "Where's Rudy?"
They say, "We don't know."
Then I had a bad feeling.
But at the same time I said,
"No, it's not possible. It can't be."
His older brother says to me,
"Mother, you have to go to Houston."
I tell his stepfather, "We have to go."
On my way, I kept saying,
"Rudy has to be okay. He has to be fine."
This is a... a tragic night.
And we had scores of individuals
that were injured here in this event.
If your relative,
family member was at this event,
and you have not spoken
to that individual,
go to the reunification center.
We will have units there
available to assist.
We were frantically looking for Bri.
We end up finding out that
Bri was getting rushed to the hospital.
Right when we get there,
her family
just starts crying
like really, really loud.
We're thinking,
"Oh, they're still trying."
"It's not over yet."
"There's still an opportunity
for her to be saved."
So we're still waiting.
Waiting for some good news.
Until they come back and they're just,
"Yeah, we can't do anything."
Everyone just, like, dropped to the floor.
I just remember crying...
and feeling like this is
the worst night of my life. This is...
I felt defeated.
I thought I had everything figured out
up until that point.
We arrived
at that address.
"Where is my son?"
"I want to see him."
I run into a cop at the door.
He grabs me, and I say to him,
"Where is my son?"
"Is he okay?"
And he says, "No, he's passed away."
So that's when I just lost it.
I was screaming.
What am I gonna tell his siblings?
What am I gonna tell his friends?
What am I gonna say
to my heart, to my soul?
They stole my light.
They stole a part of my heart.
I couldn't bear it.
And so far, I still can't.
It's a pain
that I don't wish on any mother.
If you're just waking up
and haven't watched the reports,
we know
that at least eight people are dead
and hundreds others hurt
during opening night
of rapper Travis Scott's Astroworld.
So many unanswered questions
right now like,
"What caused these eight people to die?"
It's really hard
because I've been following Travis' fans
for a really long time.
You know, they're good kids.
We came back the next day.
It was an active crime scene
with a large perimeter.
We had to secure the perimeter
and spent most of the day
just gathering information,
take pictures and measurements.
At the time, we didn't know
what had actually happened.
We had to investigate everything
and kinda eliminate everything.
The next morning,
we got a text from Live Nation
that day two wasn't happening.
And that we were going to have a meeting.
They didn't really touch on
what had happened.
For me, it was more about
not talking to the press,
not posting, not making
any sort of public comment on it.
I just thought, like,
they were trying to cover their asses
and make sure that we didn't say
anything that could hurt them.
I want to send condolences to the family.
This is now a criminal investigation.
We leave no stones unturned.
A lot of narratives out there right now.
A lot of them.
Someone allegedly injected a police
officer with some type of substance.
...was injecting other people with drugs.
A bad batch of illegal drugs.
This narrative is going around
that many people were on drugs,
and that's what caused this.
These people did not die
from a needle in their neck.
That's not why what happened happened.
The answers are in front of you.
We're telling you what happened.
Like, why are people not hearing us?
I'm waiting on Travis.
I'm waiting to see how he plays this.
I want to send out prayers to the...
...to the ones that was lost last night.
You know, my mans... my fans like...
my fans really mean the world to me,
and I always really want to leave them
with a positive experience.
Anytime I can make out,
you know, anything that's going on,
I'll stop the show and...
help them get the help
they need, you know?
Um...
I could never imagine
the severity of the situation.
An apology video,
it was like a slap in the face
to me, to everyone who suffered.
Like it wasn't really like...
You know, he made it because he had to.
"Oh, well, I'm sorry, guys.
Catch you at the next one."
That's what the vibes were to me.
It just looked bad.
It looked really bad, and you didn't look
like a superhero like you once did.
A 9th person has died
in connection
with the Astroworld concert tragedy.
22-year-old Bharti Shahani,
a senior at Texas A&M,
was declared dead last night
after being on life support
since Friday's event.
The youngest victim
crushed in the crowd surge
has succumbed to his injury.
Nine-year-old Ezra Blount has died.
He had been in a medically induced coma.
Ezra is now the 10th and youngest person
to die from the disaster.
The more I see with all of this,
the more damning all of it is.
He wanted this mob mentality chaos,
and it killed people.
A new development now,
Nike is delaying the release
of a sneaker collaboration
with Travis Scott amid the tragedy.
There is a petition circulating
asking that Scott be removed
from the popular Coachella music festival.
You fail to provide
a safe atmosphere at your show,
and your fans die right in front of you.
And you treat them
as completely worthless.
There was so much noise around Travis
that eventually, he had no choice
but to come out and defend himself.
People said they collectively heard
folks screaming "help"
every time you stopped the song
to get your attention.
Did you... Did you hear
any of those screams?
Nah, man. And you know, it's so crazy
because I'm that artist too.
Anytime you can hear something like that,
you want to stop the show.
I just didn't hear that.
Was there ever any communication to you
on stage that you should end this?
Well, yeah. They told me
right after the guests get off stage,
"We're gonna end the show."
And that's what we did.
Other than that,
there was no other communication.
- So they didn't say, "Stop now?"
- No.
- Nobody said, "Stop now."
- Gotcha.
You know, a lot of the criticism
from the tragedy,
they say is in the poor planning
and understaffing of the event.
As an artist, do you have
any involvement in any of that?
Well, I mean, as an artist,
you just do the creative.
You know, I just can control
what I can on the stage,
and you have the professionals control
what they can in the crowd.
This notion that Travis had the ability
to stop the concert is ludicrous.
The only two people that have
the authority to stop the concert
were the executive producer
and the concert producer.
For so many
to just think Travis is at fault,
you're creating a void for a lot of people
that organized that concert
to step back and not even be in the light.
It's the first time I've been back.
I can see all of it.
I say whoever had any parts
in organizing and putting it together
should be accountable.
Live Nation,
you guys were in charge of this.
What was the failure?
49 lawsuits filed in Harris County
in connection to the tragedy
against Live Nation,
Astroworld's promoter.
Rapper Travis Scott,
Apple Music, and Epic Records
are among those facing
a $750-million lawsuit.
One lawsuit claims the festival was
a "predictable and preventable tragedy."
We will make sure that they get justice
because this should have
never, ever happened.
In the months afterwards,
Live Nation got in touch with me.
I knew the venue.
I knew the event. I knew the politics.
I could quickly make sense
of what happened.
I was given text messages
between executives to emails.
Documentation and site plans,
thousands of photographs and videos,
all of which have been made public.
I believe Astroworld 2021
was not an accident.
It was an inevitability
due to the lack of foresight
and the abandonment
of basic safety protocols.
To understand what happened,
you have to go back to the beginning.
Live Nation reportedly sold
50,000 tickets to the festival.
But these tickets were sold
before they'd worked out
how this number would be able
to safely view Travis' set.
Following the tragedy,
experts for the plaintiffs
examined the evidence
and believed there was viewing capacity
for just 35,000 concertgoers
at the main stage.
Which would mean they planned
for many thousands more people
than could safely view
Travis' performance.
And to compound that,
the moment they lost control of the gates,
there's now an unknown number
of people at the festival.
In the days leading up to the event,
we can actually see text messages
between key members
of this management team.
Expressing 50,000 people
are not going to fit here.
They knew this was going to be an issue.
So not only was Travis' stage
in danger of being over capacity,
this poorly designed site led to people
approaching the stage from the side
and getting trapped in an area where
they were crushed, unable to breathe.
All ten fatalities were caused
by compression asphyxiation in this area.
Further text messages, sent just minutes
before Travis got on stage
show that Live Nation was aware
of the tragedy that was unfolding.
But they failed to act
before it was too late.
In all the failures of Astroworld,
a common denominator is
a failure to speak truth to power.
There were
many missed opportunities to speak up.
Somebody to raise their hand
and say, "Time out."
"This doesn't make sense.
We're gonna hurt somebody."
It was just a sadness in our city
because this is our festival.
You didn't have to know somebody
to be affected
because it's affected,
you know, our community.
My love for Travis was definitely
at one point boiling hot.
But now...
Hate's a strong word,
but I just... I can't support that anymore.
For the first time in my life, I felt,
like, true depression and true anxiety...
because I didn't think
I was more deserving
of other people to make it out.
Why me and why not them?
Thank God I have another chance to live
the life that I do now because of her.
- Oh, my God!
- Hi!
- You scared me! Hey, Sophia!
- Hi!
Oh, my God.
There's no way this happened,
and we don't talk afterwards.
That we're not in each other's lives
after all this just happened.
- There you go. You won.
- I won!
You got the two out of three.
Fair enough.
Our connection is so strong. Like
hopefully, we're... we're friends forever.
I'm just happy you're here.
I was 18 years old
whenever Astroworld happened.
My life has completely changed
from that moment.
Just the fact that Bri passed away
put me down, like, a dark depression.
I was gonna go to school
because I was gonna play basketball.
And I just gave up on it all.
I think about that day all the time.
What I did too slow
or what I wish I did first.
When I relive that moment,
um, trying to change my actions,
hoping for a different outcome,
but it's always the same outcome.
It could have been preventable.
It's still difficult
to talk about our friend's passing.
- For Rudy.
- For Rudy.
For Rudy.
We said that he brought people together.
After that,
he brought even more people together.
The whole city.
His funeral was so big.
Everyone was there.
Every day, I go to the grave.
They ask me why I go so much.
I say, "Let me live my pain."
It's the mother's pain.
Seeing my mom suffer every day
hurts us.
A lot.
Because we too are feeling that same pain.
As a family we share the same pain.
I say my prayers for him.
He knows
we'll see him soon.
I wish there were changes
because of what happened
with Rudy and the other people.
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.
He always motivated us
to reach for higher goals.
And if we were scared, he would say,
"Just do it, man. Don't be scared."
He deserves justice.
Someone should be accountable.
We don't ever want it to get lost
that Live Nation is the largest
concert promoter in the world.
They do these every day.
We gotta be talking
to the industry leader.
That's the only way you get change.
That's the only way we save lives.
We don't just point at the little people,
we point at all of them,
and we don't let the big people get away.
There has to be some level
of accountability that's industry-wide.
And that's not
your stock price dipping momentarily.
That's not you missing out
on sponsorship deals.
We have to learn from this.
Otherwise, it'll happen again.
One thing that I find inspiring is
the young concertgoers
that stood up courageously
and advocated for one another.
Calling for action.
It's powerful.
Whoever cut the corners,
that's who I hold responsible.
I need to see that these people
get justice and that things change.
Will we ever get "I'm sorrys"?
I want people to listen.
I want people to hear us whenever we say,
"This is not okay.
This is not how concerts go."