Astroworld promoted deadly concert with clips from 2019 chaos
Astroworld Festival organizers used clips from a chaotic Travis Scott show in 2019, in which three people were injured, to promote the deadly Houston concert Friday.
Video shared on Astroworld Fest’s Instagram account in May, and first reported by TMZ, shows delirious fans knocking over a security barricade in their rush to enter the concert.
Three people were taken to a local hospital with minor leg injuries during the stampede at the Nov. 9, 2019, event, according to Fox News.
The end of the promotional video teased the dates for this year’s concert.
Eight people were then killed and more than 300 injured Friday night in what authorities have called a trampling accident during the first night of the two-day festival.
Scott had also shared a clip of the pandemonium on his Instagram account at the time — hyping the chaos.
“DA YOUTH DEM CONTROL THE FREQUENCY. EVERYONE HAVE FUN,” he captioned the clip posted in November 2019.
“RAGERS SET TONE WHEN I COME OUT TONIGHT. BE SAFE RAGE HARD. AHHHHHHHHHHH,” he wrote.
On Twitter, the rapper wrote: “THANKS TO EVERYBODY THAT PULLED UP TO RAGE !!!!”
Several people who attended the 2019 Astroworld event told Fox News that it had been poorly organized and had hoped the latest show would turn out better.
But eight people between the ages of 14 and 27 lost their lives.
Scott is now facing widespread criticism for the deaths and has been accused of continuing his set, even as unconscious bodies were pulled from the crowd.
The 30-year-old performer has also been charged over music festivals in Arkansas in 2017 and in Chicago in 2015 for whipping up hysteria and encouraging moshing that left a guard and concertgoers injured.
Meanwhile, the FBI has joined the investigation into the deadly concert, according to KHOU.
“There’s a long list of entities that might be responsible for the tragedy that occurred Friday evening,” University of Houston Law Center Professor Meredith Duncan told KHOU.
Concert promoter Live Nation, the owners and operators of NRG Park, independent contractors at the event, and even Scott himself, could be targets of the criminal investigation, the outlet noted.
Possible charges could include reckless endangerment or even criminally negligent homicide, according to the report.
The annual festival, which was not held in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, first took place 2018, the year that Scott released his album “ASTROWORLD,” according to Fox News.