On Friday, Travis Scott held his highly anticipated Astroworld Festival in his hometown of Houston. The event, which was intended for over 50,000 of Scott’s fans and concert-goers to enjoy a night of live music and entertainment, ended in a night of tragedy, loss and chaos.
Following the concert, at least eight people have been reported dead and hundreds injured after a large crowd surged toward the front of the stage, leaving people being trampled to death, passing out and unable to breathe. The mob mentality ultimately resulted in the mass casualty event.
The city’s mayor, Sylvester Turner, and Houston Police are continuing to investigate the cause of the surge, given there was more security at the concert than at the World Series.
Friday was not the first time Travis Scott attendees have been unruly and ended up injured, and now dead, considering Scott has been known to encourage his fans to “rage.” In 2015, Scott told participants at Lollapalooza to raise their middle fingers to security and evoked a chant of “We want rage." This led Scott to be pulled from his set only five minutes after beginning and to plead guilty to reckless conduct.
Additionally, in 2017, Scott was arrested on charges of inciting a riot, disorderly conduct and endangering the welfare of a minor at his show at the Walmart Arkansas Music Pavilion in Rogers, AR., according to the Los Angeles Times.
In one of his 2018 songs, “Stargazing,” Scott sings, “it ain’t a mosh pit if ain’t no injuries,” leading the public to question if Scott could have done more to stop the events that took place in Houston after videos circulated of him spotting an ambulance in the middle of the crowd, yet he continued to sing only seconds later.
Though he did stop the show a number of times, many attendees and users on social media have publicly claimed that both Scott and videographers ignored the signs of danger and emergency after it was evident the crowd was screaming for its life. A young girl also went as far as climbing a ladder up to the stage telling the crew to stop the show because someone was already dead. The cameraman did nothing.
However, a number of TikToks are reaching millions of users’ For You Page, insisting Satan is to blame for the tragedy, as they believe the show was actually a Satanic ritual. This conspiracy theory came to light after a user on TikTok pointed out that the stage was built as an inverted cross.
A lot of Scott’s image is surrounded by demonic symbolism, which was only affirmed by his shirt that pictured people turning into demons after walking through a portal. Subsequently, people are also saying that, allegedly, the entrance to the performance was designed like the gates of hell, as the set read, “See you on the other side.”
Despite conspiracists and the public shaming Scott, the rapper still released a statement, saying, “My prayers go out to the families and all those impacted by what happened at Astroworld Festival. Houston PD has my total support as it continues to look into the tragic loss of life."
Here is what information concert-goers are sharing regarding the matter, along with how Twitter and TikTok reacted to the tragic losses and the supposed purgatory energy of the concert:
