Astroworld Festival: Witnesses describe scenes of chaos and tragedy
TK Tellez knows that festivals can get crazy. But nothing, he says, could have prepared him for the tragedy that unfolded Friday night at the Astroworld Festival in Houston.
But before Scott even came out, things got ugly, fast. The crowd surged forward while Scott was on stage.
“The crowd became tighter and tighter, and at that point it was hard to breathe. When Travis came out performing his first song, I witnessed people passing out next to me,” Tellez, 20, told CNN.
“We were all screaming for help, and no one helped or heard us. It was horrifying. People were screaming for their lives, and they couldn’t get out. Nobody could move a muscle.”
Concertgoers described the event as traumatizing, with many witnesses saying they saw lifeless bodies being trampled amidst the chaos. Those who survived had to fight their way out of the crowd as the music raged on.
Here’s more of what Tellez and others witnessed:
‘It was the scariest sound I’ve ever heard’
People around Tellez began to fall, he said, at some point causing him to fall as well. People packed on top of him, some losing consciousness.
“Everybody was crying; it was the scariest sound I’ve ever heard,” Tellez said. “Imagine listening to Travis Scott and people screaming for their lives at the same time.”
Despite his attempts and other bystanders’ efforts to administer CPR to those who weren’t breathing, “there was just not enough people to help everyone,” he said.
“Travis Scott would have a short time in between songs, and we would scream our vocal chords out so someone could hear us but nobody did,” Tellez said. “This year’s festival will be stuck with me forever. I’ve never seen someone die in front of my eyes. It was horrific.”
‘I felt like it was a nightmare’
Selena Beltran, who was attending her first music festival, found everything around her begin to tighten more and more as Scott made his way to the stage. She soon struggled to breathe.
She quickly lost sight of her four friends, and as the crowd around her began to jump, she lost her balance.
“I fell backwards and it felt like it was the end for me. To think that’s how I’ll die, I was so scared,” Beltran told CNN. “I did not know what to do. It was all happening so fast, but so slow and I couldn’t react. I just screamed.”
Despite seeing people who had clearly lost consciousness, Beltran said, people continued trampling those who were on the ground.
“I was shocked to see people act so inconsiderate and feral. It was insane to see so many just run others over like wild animals,” she said. “People did not care, they still tried to squeeze through just to get to the front without thinking of the consequences and who it would affect.”
After someone pulled her up, Beltran said, she tried to help four other people she found passed out by taking turns performing CPR on them with a nurse she met in the crowd.
“I was beginning to go into shock, although I was trying to keep my composure and not panic. It was terrifying. I felt like…
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