It’s been a year since 10 people died when the crowd surged during Travis Scott’s concert at the Astroworld Festival. He’s performing in Brazil on the anniversary.
HOUSTON — Saturday will be exciting for Houstonians as the Astros try to clinch their second World Series Championship in Game 6 against the Phillies at Minute Maid Park.
But one year ago, on November 5, 2021, another celebration turned tragic when 10 people were killed and hundreds more injured during the Astroworld Festival. For those families and survivors, it will always be remembered as a dark day in Houston’s history.
So many lives changed forever that night, but what about Travis Scott? According to his website and StubHub, the Houston native is performing at a concert in Brazil Saturday on the anniversary of the Astroworld tragedy.
More than 50,000 people were enjoying Scott’s performance at the festival he hosted last year when the crowd surged and the victims were crushed.
It was mass chaos and panicked concertgoers screamed to stop the show but it went on for more than 30 minutes. In an interview a few weeks after the tragedy, Scott claimed he didn’t realize what was happening.
“It’s a sea … you’ve got lights, you’ve got sound, you’ve got pyro,” Scott told Charlamagne Tha God. “Anytime I could see anything like that, I did. I stopped it, like a couple times.”
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Video shows he did stop at least once and announced that somebody had passed out and needed help. But then he started singing again.
Some people blamed Scott. He was named in countless lawsuits and brands distanced themselves. Anheuser Busch discontinued his hard seltzer, Nike and Dior delayed collaborative releases and his concerts paused too.
He told Charlamagne it had been “an emotional roller coaster.”
But six months after the tragedy, Diddy, host and producer of this year’s Billboard Music Awards, invited Scott to perform. It was his first TV appearance since Astroworld.
He performed at Coney Island in July and had his first solo show in London in August, nine months after the tragedy. In video posted on girlfriend Kylie Jenner’s Instagram page, Scott celebrated with James Hardin and Kevin Durant after the concert.
His Nike sneaker was released and it’s still sold out.
While the rest of the world has opened back up to Scott since Astroworld, it remains to be seen if his hometown of Houston is ready to do the same.
The hundreds of lawsuits filed could be tied up in court for years and there’s a gag order preventing anyone involved with discussing the case.