Netflix’s 2025 documentary Trainwreck: The Astroworld Tragedy takes a deeper investigative look into the 2021 fatal crowd crush event that took place during a Houston, Texas music festival developed and headlined by rapper Travis Scott. Scott, who was born Jacques Bermon Webster II, is often credited as the face of modern hip-hop in the Houston area. His fame and success led to the creation of the Astroworld Festival in 2018, following the critical and commercial success of his Astroworld album earlier that year. The festival was created in honor of Six Flags AstroWorld amusement park, which was demolished in December 2005.
Astroworld catapulted Scott into fame and led to two more festivals in 2019 and 2021. The festival was initially considered to be great for the city of Houston, which had never hosted a massive hip-hop festival of that magnitude ever before. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, which prevented Astroworld Festival 2020 from happening, the 2021 festival was a long-awaited event headlined by Scott that would span over two days, November 5 and 6. Scott closed out the first day of the 2021 festival on an exclusive stage with a set that began at 8:45 PM, which is where the tragedy took place.
The Astroworld Tragedy Refers To The Crowd Crush At Travis Scott’s 2021 Concert
An Overwhelming Number Of Concertgoers Led To Crowd Surging & Crowd Crush
The Astroworld tragedy depicted in Netflix’s Trainwreck series centers on the crowd crush event that occurred at the end of Day One of Travis Scott’s 2021 Astroworld Festival. As Travis Scott performed on stage, hundreds of fans experienced crowd surges that led to multiple medical emergencies and deaths caused by things such as suffocation, stampeding, and cardiac arrest. The tragedy occurred during Scott’s headlining set as several fans tried to notify authorities and concert personnel about the crowd crush. Many of the concertgoers were young adults, teenagers, and some of them were even children.
Trainwreck: The Astroworld Tragedy chronicles various cell phone video footage taken by fans at the concert as the crowd crush was happening. Some instances in Trainwreck feature graphic content of unspecified persons losing consciousness, getting pulled up from the ground below, and getting pushed against the stage barriers. The documentary also features interviews with friends and family members of the victims, former employees of Live Nation, the massive entertainment company that organized the Astroworld Festival, and a special investigator who offers an objective, informed perspective of what exactly went wrong.
How Many People Died In The Astroworld Tragedy
There Were 10 Deaths, Ranging From Ages 9 To 27
A total of 10 people died during the 2021 Astroworld Festival tragedy, with ages ranging from 9 to 27 years old. The youngest of the deceased was Ezra Blount, who passed away in a hospital nine days after sustaining critical injuries at the music festival. According to CNN, “The boy had been in a medically induced coma in an attempt to overcome brain, liver and kidney trauma.” Two teenagers, John Hilgert and Brianna Rodriguez, also passed away at the ages of 14 and 16, respectively. Friends of Brianna recount the tragic experience in Trainwreck and how it has changed their lives forever since.
|
Astroworld Victims |
Age |
|---|---|
|
Axel Acosta |
21 |
|
Danish Baig |
27 |
|
Ezra Blount |
9 |
|
Madison Dubiski |
23 |
|
John Hilgert |
14 |
|
Jacob Jurinek |
20 |
|
Franco Patiño |
21 |
|
Rudy Peña |
23 |
|
Brianna Rodriguez |
16 |
|
Bharti Shahani |
22 |
Many of those who died at the 2021 Astroworld Festival were either students in high school or college. The oldest of the deceased, 27-year-old Danish Baig, “died trying to save his fiancée, who was getting stomped on and hit in the crowd surge at the concert” (via CNN). Several friends of 23-year-old Rudy Peña are interviewed in Trainwreck as well, sharing their experiences of the tragedy from their perspective as concertgoers. Trainwreck offers several family members and friends of the deceased the opportunity to share their unique recollections of the tragedy.
What Happened After The Astroworld Tragedy
Travis Settled Lawsuits With Families Of The Victims
Despite several attempts to stop the Astroworld Festival immediately after the medical response became significant and overwhelming, the concert continued. There was at least one moment during the concert in which Travis Scott called attention to a concertgoer who needed medical attention, but he did not stop the music, telling his DJ to keep the track softly playing in the background. This scene was captured in the Trainwreck documentary. The Live Nation manager of the venue was made aware of the magnitude of the emergency and asked the audio engineer to inform Travis through his “ears”, or headset. It’s unclear what was said during that exchange, if anything.
Travis Scott responded to the crowd crush event by agreeing to end the set ahead of schedule, canceling Day Two of the festival, and issuing refunds to all Astroworld concertgoers.
Travis Scott responded to the crowd crush event by agreeing to end the set ahead of schedule, canceling Day Two of the festival, and issuing refunds to all Astroworld concertgoers. He released a black and white video statement on his Instagram story the next day, which he began by saying, “I just want to send out prayers to the ones that was lost last night. We’re actually working right now to identify the families.” In an interview with Charlamagne the God, Scott summarizes the tragedy as a concert safety issue and says that he didn’t understand the magnitude of the tragedy while he was performing.
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The experts in Trainwreck suggest the primary cause of the 2021 Astroworld Festival tragedy was linked to the venue setup and the overwhelming number of concertgoers, some of whom were not ticketed patrons. Live Nation made a statement shown at the end of the documentary that reveals they did not oversell Astroworld tickets beyond the capacity established and approved by Houston authorities. Scott settled his various lawsuits with the families of the deceased privately and was not charged with any crimes, such as inciting an environment of violence.
The 2021 Astroworld tragedy is also not the first instance in which fans have gotten seriously injured at one of Travis Scott’s concerts.
Scott did, however, delete a tweet he made before the festival that some have interpreted as encouraging unticketed fans to sneak into the venue. It reads, “NAW AND WE STILL SNEAKING THE WILD ONES IN.” The 2021 Astroworld tragedy is also not the first instance in which fans have gotten seriously injured at one of Travis Scott’s concerts.
What The Astroworld Tragedy Doc Leaves Out
There Were Many More Parties & Companies Involved
Travis Scott offered to pay for the funeral costs of the deceased, but all the families denied his offer. The Chief of Houston Police also met with Travis before Astroworld 2021 to address safety concerns for the festival, to encourage Travis and his team to be mindful of their social media statements (via Yahoo). Scott lost his headlining spot for Coachella 2022 following the tragedy, but recently headlined the 2025 festival.
Scott’s girlfriend at the time, Kylie Jenner, was in attendance at the festival and made an online response claiming that she and Travis weren’t aware of any fatalities until after the show ended. Apple Music, which filmed the performance professionally, was also sued and received allegations that their camera team influenced the stage setup, which contributed to teh crowd crush (via Rolling Stone). Netflix’s Trainwreck: The Astroworld Tragedy summarizes the event but leaves out other key people and companies who were involved.
Source: CNN, CThaGod, Yahoo, Rolling Stone
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