The story of an Astroworld survivor who lost his brother 3:27
(CNN) -
Travis Scott concerts are known for being raucous and loud.
But the 2021 Astroworld Festival, where the first night of performances was scheduled to close, went beyond expected levels of uproar when it took a deadly turn.
Footage from the day of her performance showed a crowd of fans pushing their way through a VIP entrance, destroying it in the process.
The crowd that formed before his performance numbered around 50,000.
"I want to see some freaking out," Scott said at one point during his performance at Astroworld, according to Reuters.
"Who wants to freak out?"
Tragedy at the Astroworld festival: minute by minute
Scott isn't the only one in the entertainment world to energize crowds like this, but his style and story are now under scrutiny after the Texas music festival resulted in a massive death toll.
At least eight people were killed and 300 injured during Scott's Houston performance last week, when a crowd of about 50,000 rushed onto the stage.
Concert goers were crowded and trampled in chaos, with witnesses describing gasping or CPR for those who had fallen unconscious.
Scott, whose real name is Jacques Webster, said in a video statement that he was "honestly devastated" and that he stopped the show briefly when he realized a member of the public needed help and again when he saw an ambulance.
He resumed the show after those breaks and continued to perform for another 30 minutes after authorities declared a mass casualty event at the festival.
The moment Travis Scott stops his concert 0:21
However, the crowding at Astroworld is in line with Scott's kind of tumultuous concerts, where fans can go wild, said Noah Shachtman, editor-in-chief of Rolling Stone.
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"The warning signs in this case go back a long way, unfortunately," Shachtman said in an interview with CNN's John Berman.
Live Nation, the promoter of Astroworld, has a history of security breaches
Scott's previous concerts ended with some injuries among fans and security elements and with two arrests of the rapper.
A concert goer filed a lawsuit after saying he was paralyzed at a Scott concert after falling from a balcony.
Scott and the other defendants have denied the allegations in the lawsuit, according to court documents.
Scott has been accused of inciting a riot at previous concerts
Scott has been arrested at least twice for incidents at his concerts.
The first was during a performance at Lollapalooza in 2015, when police said Scott told attendees to get on the security barricades, according to CNN affiliate WLS.
"The artist played a song and then started telling fans to step over the barricades," the Chicago Office of Emergency Management said in a statement to WLS at the time.
"Thanks to the quick response from security, the situation was resolved immediately and no fans were injured. The artist fled the scene and was arrested shortly after."
Scott later pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor of reckless conduct and was sentenced to one year of judicial supervision, the
Chicago Tribune reported
.
His second concert-related arrest came in 2017 after a show in Rogers, Arkansas, where he was charged with inciting a riot, disorderly conduct and endangering the welfare of a minor.
Police said Scott "encouraged people to jump onto the stage and bypass security protocols," leading to injuries.
Two of the charges were dropped in 2018, but Scott pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct and paid more than $ 6,800 to two people who said they were injured at his show, the Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette reported.
Travis Scott performs to a large crowd during the Astroworld festival in 2019.
A fan filed a lawsuit against Scott and various other parties after he said he was partially paralyzed at a Scott concert also in 2017. Kyle Green was "provoked, fell off a balcony" at a Scott concert in New York and was moved by security guards "without a cervical collar, backboard and other safety precautions," according to a lawsuit Green's attorneys filed against Scott, developer The Bowery Presents LLC, XX Global Inc, David Stromberg Scott's Cactus Jack Company and Strike Force Protective Services.
In a statement, Green's attorney, Howard Hershenhorn, said Green was "devastated and heartbroken" for the families of the Astroworld victims.
"He's even more outraged that it could have been prevented if Travis had learned his lesson in the past and changed his attitude from inciting people to behave so recklessly," Hershenhorn said.
"Travis has to learn from what just happened," Hersehnhorn told CNN's Don Lemon on Monday.
"And the truth is, and what is so hard for Kyle about this circumstance and frankly for me as his attorney ... is that he should have learned by now."
Scott's high-octane gigs have become his signature
The
mosh pits
(spaces where, in
front of the stage, dancing people aggressively, known in Spanish as "pogo") violent and chaotic crowds were the first characteristics of the punk scene of the 80s, when fans usually male, crushed and collided to the beat of heavy metal and hardcore grunge, a result of fans experiencing "a shared euphoria and a sense of emotional closeness," British psychologist Matt Jarvis told British-style magazine The Face. That same vibe has since been cultivated by rap stars like Scott and his contemporaries, including Tyler, the Creator, and Playboi Carti.
Scott's reputation as a "rager" has become his signature, and it's part of his appeal to fans and concert goers looking to break free.
In a 2015 GQ interview on "how to
rage,
" Scott said he wanted his concerts to feel like high-energy wrestling matches.
He often encourages the audience to match their energy level on stage, which often results in jumping, dancing, or the formation of
mosh pits in
front of the stage.
"You find whatever you are going to consume to turn yourself on ... be it your drugs, be it your water, be it your orange juice or your alcohol, do whatever you want to do," he said in the 2015 interview.
This photo taken at the Astroworld festival in 2019 shows concertgoers huddled against security barriers.
He also shared footage of fans breaking down barricades and storming the entrance to the 2019 Astroworld Festival. The video he shared also includes clips of fans
violently
moshing
or pogoing and what appears to be a security item carrying a body on their shoulders.
That year, three people waiting to enter the festival were transported to hospital after being trampled on even before the festival began, CNN affiliate KTRK reported at the time.
Scott said he wants his fans to "do their thing" and doesn't try to control them.
"Sometimes kids are so into this that it just comes out of them," he said in an interview for GQ in 2017. "I'm always amazed by the things that happen at shows."
Deaths at Astroworld remain under investigation
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PHOTOS |
The victims of the Astroworld tragedy |
Rodolfo Peña, 23, lived in Laredo, Texas, and studied at Laredo College, according to his Facebook page.
His older sister opened a verified GoFundMe account for funeral expenses.
(Photo: Guadalupe Peña) →
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Jacob Jurinek, 20, was a journalism student at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, the faculty reported, describing him as "a creative and intelligent young man with a promising career in journalism and advertising."
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Danish Baig, 27, died trying to save his fiancee, who was being trampled and beaten in the crowd at the concert, his brother Basil Baig told CNN on Sunday.
Basil Baig said his brother's fiancee survived, but has bruises all over her body and is traumatized.
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Franco Patiño, 21, Patiño, was a senior at the University of Dayton.
"He was loved by many for the loyal, loving, selfless, protective, fun and caring person that he was," his family said in a statement.
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Brianna Rodriguez, 16, was a high school student at Heights High School in Houston, according to a verified GoFundMe account established by her family.
"Dancing was her passion and now she's dancing to heaven's gates," says the fundraising post.
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Axel Acosta, 21, was a senior at Western Washington University and was interested in computer science, the university said.
According to Acosta's brother, the last time he was heard from was around 5 p.m. on Friday.
On Saturday, the Harris County Medical Examiner's Office released a photo of Acosta and asked the public for help identifying the body.
The Houston Police Department's investigation into what went wrong at Astroworld could take weeks, if not longer, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said.
A civil lawsuit has already been filed against Scott, entertainment company Live Nation and promoter Scoremore.
Lawsuit filed against Travis Scott, Live Nation, and others following Astroworld Festival tragedy
The ages of the deceased range between 14 and 27 years, while three people remain hospitalized, two of them in critical condition, until Tuesday morning.
Scott said in his video statement that he was working closely with Houston authorities and other officials investigating to determine what went wrong.
He also pledged to pay for the funerals of the eight victims and to offer refunds to everyone who bought tickets to the Astroworld festival.
Astroworld Travis Scott