WEBVTT - Travis Scott and Astroworld: The Devil Went Down to Houston 0:00:00.720 --> 0:00:18.959 Disgraceland is a production of Double Elvis. This is the 0:00:19.000 --> 0:00:23.160 story about a music festival, and not just any music festival, 0:00:23.640 --> 0:00:26.599 a disastrous music festival led by one of the biggest 0:00:26.680 --> 0:00:30.880 musical stars in the world, Travis Scott. But this is 0:00:30.920 --> 0:00:35.440 also a story about well hell and one of the 0:00:35.479 --> 0:00:39.680 dirtiest of the seven Deadly sins, greed. And this is 0:00:39.800 --> 0:00:43.879 also a story about the devil and what happens when 0:00:43.920 --> 0:00:47.360 the devil is in control. It's the story of a 0:00:47.400 --> 0:00:53.199 supposed Satanic sacrifice, an energy harvest wherein innocent souls were stolen. 0:00:54.280 --> 0:00:58.600 This is a story about Travis Scott's Astor World, a 0:00:58.640 --> 0:01:03.120 festival that contained some great music. Unlike that music I 0:01:03.160 --> 0:01:05.520 played for you at the top of the show. That 0:01:05.840 --> 0:01:09.120 wasn't great music. That was a preset loop from my 0:01:09.200 --> 0:01:15.120 melotron called Barbarian Bolero MK One. I played you that 0:01:15.160 --> 0:01:18.080 loop because I can't afford the rights to Easy on 0:01:18.200 --> 0:01:21.520 Me by Adele And why would I play you that 0:01:21.720 --> 0:01:25.720 specific slice of redemptive torch Cheese? Could I afford it? 0:01:27.280 --> 0:01:30.840 Because that was the number one song in America on 0:01:30.920 --> 0:01:34.720 November fifth, twenty twenty one, and that was the day 0:01:34.760 --> 0:01:37.800 that a music festival organized by a hometown hero in 0:01:37.840 --> 0:01:42.360 Houston went horribly awry, plunging tens of thousands into what 0:01:42.520 --> 0:01:47.520 truly felt like hell on Earth on this episode, greed, 0:01:47.960 --> 0:01:54.840 satanic sacrifices, snatched souls. In Travis Scott's Astro World, I'm 0:01:54.960 --> 0:02:32.600 Jake Brennan, and this this disgraceland hell. That was a 0:02:32.600 --> 0:02:37.600 word used to describe the COVID nineteen pandemic, especially by 0:02:37.680 --> 0:02:41.320 frontline workers who witness the worst of the infectious disease 0:02:41.520 --> 0:02:45.720 at close range. Here in the US. In January of 0:02:45.720 --> 0:02:48.680 twenty twenty one, just about a year after the first 0:02:48.720 --> 0:02:53.799 case was recorded in Washington State, cases suddenly surged nationwide. 0:02:54.639 --> 0:02:59.240 And it's not difficult to understand why social distancing mass 0:02:59.639 --> 0:03:05.400 is that type of behavior. It's not normal those restrictions. 0:03:05.880 --> 0:03:11.079 Human beings aren't supposed to live with them. We require contact, interaction. 0:03:11.880 --> 0:03:15.200 We need to be around other people, whether it's at 0:03:15.200 --> 0:03:17.959 the movie theater or a concert venue, or a church 0:03:18.200 --> 0:03:23.160 or a ballpark. Shared experiences are crucial to the human experience. 0:03:24.480 --> 0:03:27.560 Coming out of COVID, what we wanted more than anything 0:03:28.040 --> 0:03:31.520 was to have those experiences again, to get our lives back, 0:03:31.960 --> 0:03:35.480 to feel that sense of normalcy. A sense of ourselves 0:03:35.760 --> 0:03:39.080 in social settings with other people, but we had to 0:03:39.120 --> 0:03:44.280 relearn it. Months a year spent in isolation meant we 0:03:44.280 --> 0:03:49.960 were collectively rusty. So we conjured a spell, one we 0:03:50.080 --> 0:03:54.920 hoped would heal the pain of COVID, but instead we 0:03:54.960 --> 0:03:59.560 created a monster, a malevolent entity with a mind of 0:03:59.600 --> 0:04:02.400 its own. And for those unlucky enough to get in 0:04:02.440 --> 0:04:06.040 the path of this monster, they found themselves staring down 0:04:06.080 --> 0:04:10.760 the very thing we all thought we'd escaped from hell. 0:04:13.720 --> 0:04:19.520 November fifth, twenty twenty one, Houston, Texas, nine am. The 0:04:19.600 --> 0:04:24.400 crowd outside Energy Park was growing restless. Some fans have 0:04:24.520 --> 0:04:27.920 been there long before sunrise, but the gates wouldn't open 0:04:28.000 --> 0:04:31.720 for another hour, so they were forced to wait. But 0:04:31.760 --> 0:04:33.760 what they really wanted was to be letting out all 0:04:33.839 --> 0:04:36.520 that emotion and aggression that they'd started up during the 0:04:36.520 --> 0:04:43.120 COVID nineteen pandemic in isolation. They wanted to rage. Check 0:04:43.200 --> 0:04:47.479 that they were under a directive to rage, per the 0:04:47.600 --> 0:04:51.800 organizer and headliner of the third annual Astroworld Festival, the 0:04:51.880 --> 0:04:57.800 hip hop artist Travis Scott. Raging was Travis Scott's ethos, 0:04:58.560 --> 0:05:01.000 the kind shared by a hardcore or a punk audience 0:05:01.120 --> 0:05:05.960 or Travis's beloved world of professional wrestling. A Travis Scott 0:05:06.040 --> 0:05:11.920 show implied physical audience participation, mosh pits, crowdsurfing, stage rushing, 0:05:12.680 --> 0:05:15.599 and While part of the allure of Astorworld was the 0:05:15.600 --> 0:05:19.680 eclectic two day lineup with performances by Bad Bunny Dam 0:05:19.720 --> 0:05:22.880 and Paula Sizza, then Earth Went and Fired and name 0:05:22.920 --> 0:05:28.120 a few, Travis Scott was different. He was a hometown boy, 0:05:28.279 --> 0:05:32.200 made good and all that. Two solo albums that debuted 0:05:32.200 --> 0:05:34.880 at the top of the Billboard Album chart, Birds in 0:05:34.920 --> 0:05:39.120 the Traps Sing good Night, and Astorworld, the latter named 0:05:39.160 --> 0:05:42.039 after the former six Flags amusement park in Houston that 0:05:42.360 --> 0:05:46.720 once stood near the music festival's location. A compilation album 0:05:46.839 --> 0:05:51.120 called jack Boys also number one number one singles too, 0:05:51.680 --> 0:05:55.400 and don't forget the merchandise collaborations with Hot Wheels, with Nike, 0:05:55.720 --> 0:05:59.680 with Receis, and most famously with McDonald's, who just one 0:05:59.720 --> 0:06:02.880 year prior had made Travis the first celebrity to be 0:06:02.920 --> 0:06:06.240 featured on their menu since Michael Jordan way back in 0:06:06.360 --> 0:06:11.719 nineteen ninety two. My point is Travis Scott in November 0:06:11.760 --> 0:06:16.680 of twenty twenty one was huge, but back home in Houston, 0:06:17.080 --> 0:06:21.479 Travis Scott was beyond huge. He loomed large, just like 0:06:21.600 --> 0:06:24.520 that giant statue of him now loomed over the growing 0:06:24.560 --> 0:06:27.559 crowd of hundreds, impatiently waiting for the gates to open 0:06:27.600 --> 0:06:30.400 and let them into Energy Park and into the Astro 0:06:30.480 --> 0:06:34.360 World Festival. Once inside, their eyes would be open to 0:06:34.400 --> 0:06:38.480 a whole new universe, or so promised the promotional posters. 0:06:38.760 --> 0:06:41.520 See you on the other side, the poster read, next 0:06:41.520 --> 0:06:43.720 to a sketch of a pair of hands with big 0:06:43.760 --> 0:06:46.120 eyes stuck in their palms, and what looked to be 0:06:46.160 --> 0:06:49.880 a two lane road descending down a large tunnel. Above 0:06:49.920 --> 0:06:52.919 that tunnel was a crude drawing of a figure walking 0:06:52.960 --> 0:06:57.040 through a doorframe. A whole new universe the other side. 0:06:57.360 --> 0:07:01.159 Here tonight, the crowd that was assembled outside the gates 0:07:01.240 --> 0:07:04.640 understood the assignment at hand. To get to that other side, 0:07:04.880 --> 0:07:06.640 they had to push the party to the edge of 0:07:06.720 --> 0:07:11.680 total chaos. Only then would the experience be truly transformative. 0:07:12.880 --> 0:07:15.640 The crowd had done this in twenty fifteen at Lallapalooza 0:07:15.680 --> 0:07:18.840 in Chicago, when Travis Scott encouraged fans to jump the 0:07:18.880 --> 0:07:22.120 barricades to give any and all security guards the finger 0:07:22.160 --> 0:07:25.840 and a chant we want rage. Travis got the boot 0:07:25.960 --> 0:07:28.440 just five minutes into his set, but not before a 0:07:28.480 --> 0:07:32.160 fifteen year old girl was injured in the resulting stampede, 0:07:32.200 --> 0:07:35.360 for which Travis Scott was charged with reckless conduct and 0:07:35.440 --> 0:07:39.120 sentenced to one year of court supervision. Two years later, 0:07:39.360 --> 0:07:43.160 in twenty seventeen, Travis was charged with disorderly conduct in 0:07:43.280 --> 0:07:46.160 order to pay restitution to multiple people who were injured 0:07:46.360 --> 0:07:49.280 when he once again instructed fans to rush the stage 0:07:49.360 --> 0:07:53.080 during a show in Arkansas. In just weeks after that, 0:07:53.360 --> 0:07:56.360 at a show of Manhattan, Travis Scott, on stage at 0:07:56.440 --> 0:07:59.160 Terminal five, looked up at a fan dangling from the 0:07:59.160 --> 0:08:02.200 second floor ballot be about to fall into the audience below. 0:08:03.040 --> 0:08:05.160 I see you, but are you going to do it? 0:08:05.600 --> 0:08:09.640 Travis asked from the stage. The kid hesitated, They're gonna 0:08:09.640 --> 0:08:13.080 catch you. Travis said, don't be scared. Don't be scared. 0:08:13.800 --> 0:08:16.480 The kid let go. It was dropped safely into the 0:08:16.560 --> 0:08:20.440 arms of his fellow concertgoers. Not so lucky was the 0:08:20.480 --> 0:08:23.280 next ban to fall from the same balcony, who did 0:08:23.280 --> 0:08:25.960 so not under his own volition, but because he was 0:08:26.040 --> 0:08:30.040 pushed as the crowd surged against his back. He tumbled 0:08:30.080 --> 0:08:32.720 over the edge, falling fast, hitting the floor with such 0:08:32.760 --> 0:08:35.880 force that he immediately broke several bones in his vertebrae 0:08:36.000 --> 0:08:41.400 and was paralyzed. Now, on November fifth, twenty twenty one, 0:08:41.679 --> 0:08:44.720 at Astro World, those who had been injured and disabled 0:08:44.720 --> 0:08:48.880 at previous Travis Scott shows were a distant memory. COVID 0:08:48.920 --> 0:08:51.720 felt like a lifetime ago, a really bad dream that 0:08:51.760 --> 0:08:54.960 everyone had since woken up from here. Now it was 0:08:55.000 --> 0:08:58.480 all about moving forward, onwards and upwards in the past 0:08:58.600 --> 0:09:02.920 year and through these gar and so even before the 0:09:02.960 --> 0:09:06.280 gates officially opened at ten am, that's what many were doing, 0:09:06.840 --> 0:09:10.920 crawling under fences, knocking over barricades, snapping the chain link 0:09:10.920 --> 0:09:14.120 fences with bowl cutters, even those who weren't supposed to 0:09:14.200 --> 0:09:17.800 be there, Literally thousands more showing up beyond the fifty 0:09:17.840 --> 0:09:21.320 thousand ticketed attendees. And when the gates did open for real, 0:09:21.720 --> 0:09:25.360 it was like a swollen river bursting a dam. No order, 0:09:25.640 --> 0:09:29.400 no chill, just a swarm of bodies, mostly teenagers and 0:09:29.440 --> 0:09:33.560 young adults, feet pounding the pavement, some pushed, some pulled, 0:09:33.880 --> 0:09:38.439 some falling to the ground, trampled, entire sections of fencing flattened, 0:09:39.040 --> 0:09:43.200 They skipped security checkpoints, knocked over metal detectors. The first 0:09:43.240 --> 0:09:45.200 set by the first artist of the day wasn't for 0:09:45.240 --> 0:09:48.920 another three hours, but none of that mattered. Time right 0:09:49.000 --> 0:09:52.600 now moved just as unpredictably as it had during the pandemic. 0:09:54.360 --> 0:09:58.160 But you you're moving with purpose. You're trying to get 0:09:58.200 --> 0:10:00.760 safely past the crush at the gate and get inside, 0:10:01.040 --> 0:10:03.440 which you do, and the first point of interest you 0:10:03.520 --> 0:10:06.800 encounter is the merch booth. Hundreds, if not thousands, of 0:10:06.840 --> 0:10:10.040 bodies are running straight forward. The barricade set up to 0:10:10.080 --> 0:10:13.320 maintain an organized line of commerce are being ignored. Kids 0:10:13.360 --> 0:10:16.040 are jumping them or just pushing them aside, cutting the 0:10:16.080 --> 0:10:18.360 line if there was even a line to cut. The 0:10:18.440 --> 0:10:22.280 crowd grows, the bodies push forward. You're caught in the 0:10:22.360 --> 0:10:25.280 flow against your will, so you find a way out 0:10:25.320 --> 0:10:28.360 and take it, And just at that moment, the crowd 0:10:28.360 --> 0:10:33.640 gets really crazy. Kids, adults, normal human beings suddenly gone feral. 0:10:34.160 --> 0:10:36.320 They want what they want and they're going to take it. 0:10:36.840 --> 0:10:39.400 As you walk away, you watch as people start to 0:10:39.480 --> 0:10:42.640 pounce on the merch counter, grabbing t shirts, grabbing for 0:10:42.720 --> 0:10:45.640 registers full of cash, whatever they can get their hands on. 0:10:46.000 --> 0:10:48.480 Minutes later, you hear some dude telling his girl that 0:10:48.480 --> 0:10:51.200 the merch area was shut down after multiple requests for 0:10:51.280 --> 0:10:55.040 police and medical attention. By this point, you've made your 0:10:55.080 --> 0:10:58.000 way through the giant whitehead statue of Travis Scott that 0:10:58.080 --> 0:11:01.360 leads into the main concert area. It's the same bust 0:11:01.400 --> 0:11:03.920 of Travis on the cover of his Astra World album. 0:11:04.600 --> 0:11:07.520 You walk straight through his open mouth, which is kind 0:11:07.520 --> 0:11:10.559 of rad but also kind of gross at the same time, 0:11:11.400 --> 0:11:15.240 and then right up ahead you see it just like 0:11:15.280 --> 0:11:17.520 it was shown to you on the Astra World posters, 0:11:18.360 --> 0:11:22.319 that long road descending into a large tunnel. But this 0:11:22.440 --> 0:11:26.319 road is actually a stage which looks not unlike an 0:11:26.400 --> 0:11:30.760 inverted cross, And the large tunnel that this inverted cross 0:11:30.800 --> 0:11:35.720 sprawls into is actually a circle constructed in layers to 0:11:35.840 --> 0:11:41.840 create depth. That circle is drilled into an even bigger backdrop, 0:11:42.200 --> 0:11:47.040 which is shaped like a mountain. Right now, the mountain 0:11:47.120 --> 0:11:51.960 is black with a tan outline, nondescript, just another man 0:11:52.000 --> 0:11:56.440 made structure in broad daylight. But tonight, at nine pm, 0:11:56.520 --> 0:12:01.440 to be exact, it will change. Everything will change because 0:12:01.440 --> 0:12:05.440 that's when Travis Scott will take the stage. That's when 0:12:05.440 --> 0:12:10.839 that nondescript man made structure will become possessed. That's when 0:12:10.880 --> 0:12:14.360 the monster will take over, and you and every other 0:12:14.440 --> 0:12:19.280 person here willingly or not, will be taken kicking and 0:12:19.320 --> 0:12:50.360 screaming to the other side. By eight point thirty that evening, 0:12:50.640 --> 0:12:54.560 the mountain backdrop on the Astor World stage was glowing yellow, 0:12:54.840 --> 0:12:59.560 then orange, and then red. The audience was well beyond capacity. 0:13:00.080 --> 0:13:03.520 Remember that's fifty thousand people due to all the gay 0:13:03.600 --> 0:13:08.880 crashers who overwhelmed Astor World's infrastructure. The incredibly bright colors 0:13:09.000 --> 0:13:11.680 radiating from the stage cut through the dark Houston night, 0:13:12.160 --> 0:13:15.960 bleeding all over the fences staring back, and the layered 0:13:16.000 --> 0:13:18.080 circles at the center of the mountain began to glow 0:13:18.160 --> 0:13:22.040 red too. Then the words Sea on the other side 0:13:22.440 --> 0:13:25.960 were followed by a timer. It started at thirty minutes 0:13:26.400 --> 0:13:30.000 and immediately began to count down. Fans had spent the 0:13:30.080 --> 0:13:33.640 last seven plus hours watching sets by Master p by 0:13:33.760 --> 0:13:37.000 Don Tolliver, by Little Baby, and others, but they were 0:13:37.040 --> 0:13:40.880 beyond sight for their hometown hero. Each minute that the 0:13:40.920 --> 0:13:44.400 timer counted down was a minute closer to Travis Scott, 0:13:45.040 --> 0:13:50.920 closer to Rage, closer to that other side. Twenty five minutes, 0:13:51.480 --> 0:13:55.839 twenty fifteen, Around the ten minute mark in the front 0:13:55.880 --> 0:13:59.120 left quadrant up near the stage. A huge surge in 0:13:59.160 --> 0:14:02.560 the crowd came from It was violent and quick, and 0:14:02.600 --> 0:14:05.440 there was no choice but to be carried along. People 0:14:05.440 --> 0:14:07.760 were packed in so tight that you either had your 0:14:07.840 --> 0:14:10.079 arms straight up in the air or straight down by 0:14:10.080 --> 0:14:12.960 your side. It was like you looked directly into the 0:14:13.000 --> 0:14:17.640 eyes of Medusa, turned to stone with a snap, arms 0:14:17.679 --> 0:14:20.880 pressed against your chest, fists clenched into your neck, your 0:14:20.960 --> 0:14:24.239 head leaning back, face angled up to the open sky, 0:14:24.280 --> 0:14:27.800 gasping for a few tiny breaths above the fray. The 0:14:27.880 --> 0:14:31.240 air of anticipation and excitement so often present at the 0:14:31.240 --> 0:14:34.560 start of a show like this, suddenly blotted out by 0:14:34.600 --> 0:14:39.200 a feeling of dread. Someone screamed, and then another. War 0:14:39.320 --> 0:14:42.840 cries and sounds of warning. The blood red light from 0:14:42.840 --> 0:14:52.200 the stage intensified. Five minutes four three, two one. An 0:14:52.280 --> 0:14:56.720 organ rang out, started low and then building ancient history 0:14:57.040 --> 0:15:01.040 reanimated but still rotten. The layered circles in the center 0:15:01.080 --> 0:15:04.040 of the mountain on stage began to glow deep red. 0:15:05.120 --> 0:15:10.240 The monster was alive, now taking shape. It sent forth 0:15:10.280 --> 0:15:13.480 a messenger to announce its arrival. An image of a 0:15:13.480 --> 0:15:16.400 bird or a dragon was flapping its wings in a 0:15:16.400 --> 0:15:18.800 cloud of fire at the top of the mountain, and 0:15:18.880 --> 0:15:22.440 the organ music became auto tuned inverted, just like that 0:15:22.600 --> 0:15:27.480 cross of a stage. Without warning, Travis Scott jumped from 0:15:27.480 --> 0:15:31.640 out of nowhere, his feet landing hard, the music hitting 0:15:31.720 --> 0:15:37.520 even harder, bass, treble, organ fire, huge flame shot into 0:15:37.560 --> 0:15:40.960 the sky all around him. Travis's first song was called 0:15:41.160 --> 0:15:45.560 escape plan ironic, seeing as there was no escape as 0:15:45.600 --> 0:15:50.000 the crowd once again surged forward. This time the surge 0:15:50.080 --> 0:15:53.760 was harder and more forceful than before. Body sandwiched into 0:15:53.760 --> 0:15:56.640 other bodies, so tight that you could feel your lungs 0:15:56.640 --> 0:16:00.320 compressed and the air lead out of you. Ever been 0:16:00.360 --> 0:16:03.360 in a crowd crushed before, you know how frightening It 0:16:03.400 --> 0:16:07.080 is not just the realization that your oxygen supply has 0:16:07.120 --> 0:16:09.880 been cut out, or of the adrenaline and the survival 0:16:09.880 --> 0:16:12.760 instinct that kicks in to save you, but the feeling 0:16:13.120 --> 0:16:18.280 that you've completely lost control. Thousands of bodies all becoming one, 0:16:18.640 --> 0:16:22.280 moving as one, ebbing and flowing as one. Your feet 0:16:22.400 --> 0:16:25.760 literally lift off the ground, you removed from one spot 0:16:25.800 --> 0:16:28.720 to another. It's like you're being carried away on a 0:16:28.760 --> 0:16:32.480 gigantic wave in the ocean, only the ocean is other people, 0:16:33.200 --> 0:16:37.040 just like Hell is, other people that make no mistake, 0:16:37.600 --> 0:16:43.400 Hell was here on Earth, at astor world. The monster's 0:16:43.440 --> 0:16:46.600 voice was in the base frequencies, so loud that it 0:16:46.640 --> 0:16:49.200 felt like the ground was about to split open and 0:16:49.280 --> 0:16:53.200 swallow everyone whole. The monster's tongue was in the flames 0:16:53.200 --> 0:16:57.480 that continued to erupt all over the stage. Darkness devoured 0:16:57.480 --> 0:17:00.640 the light. The mountain was a volcano. The center of 0:17:00.680 --> 0:17:04.040 the layered circle morphed into a giant eyeball, darting to 0:17:04.080 --> 0:17:05.959 the left and then to the right, looking at all 0:17:06.000 --> 0:17:08.919 fifty thousand plus people out there, looking directly at you, 0:17:09.800 --> 0:17:13.760 all seeing, all knowing. The crowd crush swelled again as 0:17:13.760 --> 0:17:16.320 the inverted church music mixed with an ear splitting hip 0:17:16.320 --> 0:17:20.280 hop beat, and the intended effect was one release in catharsis, 0:17:20.520 --> 0:17:23.720 But in reality, the effect it created was one of 0:17:23.800 --> 0:17:28.560 pure panic. Some couldn't handle it. They crouched down on 0:17:28.560 --> 0:17:32.159 one knee, attempting to catch their breath. Instead, they were 0:17:32.240 --> 0:17:35.359 plowed over by the bodies surrounding them, knocked to the ground, 0:17:35.440 --> 0:17:39.240 stepped on trampled mash pits, were collapsing in on themselves, 0:17:39.520 --> 0:17:44.680 broken feet, broken hands, dislocated shoulders, blood running from the noses, 0:17:44.680 --> 0:17:47.680 and blood pouring out of mouths, eyes rolling into the 0:17:47.720 --> 0:17:51.879 backs of heads, blue lips, gray skin. A college student 0:17:52.080 --> 0:17:56.040 displayed out on the ground, unconscious, maybe dead. Someone started 0:17:56.080 --> 0:17:59.040 CPR on her while others screened for a medic. A 0:17:59.160 --> 0:18:02.119 nine year old on top of his father's shoulders, thrown 0:18:02.200 --> 0:18:04.800 forward when his dad was caught up and the crowd crush, 0:18:05.080 --> 0:18:07.840 the boy was launched into a massive arms and legs. 0:18:08.200 --> 0:18:10.760 One second he was right there and the next he 0:18:10.920 --> 0:18:17.000 was gone. Things were going very, very badly, but not 0:18:17.160 --> 0:18:20.320 everyone knew it. If you watch videos taken by those 0:18:20.320 --> 0:18:23.240 in the crowd, you can hear people screaming help and 0:18:23.320 --> 0:18:27.399 stop the show in between the songs. The footage is chilling. 0:18:27.920 --> 0:18:30.360 You can see people climbing up on risers to get 0:18:30.359 --> 0:18:33.520 the attention of camera operators, yelling to them that the 0:18:33.560 --> 0:18:37.000 show had to be stopped, that people were dying. But 0:18:37.119 --> 0:18:40.600 you can also hear other fans making fun of the whistleblowers, 0:18:41.000 --> 0:18:44.320 telling them to calm down. The crowd was just too big. 0:18:44.680 --> 0:18:47.480 The music, the lights, the pyro, all of it was 0:18:47.520 --> 0:18:53.640 waging a constant, all out assault on the senses on stage. 0:18:53.760 --> 0:18:56.320 Travis Scott was hoisted in the air on a riser 0:18:56.359 --> 0:18:58.919 of his own. He looked down on the mass of 0:18:58.960 --> 0:19:02.280 flesh watched one kid escape the crowd and climb up 0:19:02.280 --> 0:19:04.760 one of the trees there on site. It was like 0:19:04.800 --> 0:19:07.840 the guy hanging from the balcony in Manhattan all over again. 0:19:09.080 --> 0:19:12.000 Taking his cue from the kid in the tree, Travis asked, 0:19:12.280 --> 0:19:16.080 who wants to rage. Some of the crowd roared their approval, 0:19:16.080 --> 0:19:19.919 while others went horace, calling for medical attention. Voices of 0:19:20.040 --> 0:19:23.439 terror mixed in with voices of rapture, no telling the 0:19:23.480 --> 0:19:28.760 two apart. But then, for a brief moment it seemed 0:19:28.800 --> 0:19:32.919 like things would turn around. Travis noticed an ambulance pushing 0:19:32.960 --> 0:19:35.679 its way through the audience en route to someone who 0:19:35.800 --> 0:19:39.679 was passed out and needed medical attention. He stopped the show. 0:19:40.480 --> 0:19:44.080 He watched silently as the fan was helped. The smartphone 0:19:44.160 --> 0:19:47.960 video of this moment shows actual concern in Travis Scott's face, 0:19:48.680 --> 0:19:52.560 but also confusion, almost like he's stuck in a moment, 0:19:53.160 --> 0:19:57.480 as if he went somewhere else slowly, though he came 0:19:57.560 --> 0:20:01.359 back thirty seconds later. He asked everyone who was okay 0:20:01.400 --> 0:20:03.800 to stick a middle finger in the sky, and the 0:20:03.800 --> 0:20:07.240 fingers went up, and then just sixty seconds after he 0:20:07.280 --> 0:20:11.320 stopped the show, it was back on. The music blasted, 0:20:11.480 --> 0:20:15.320 the flames erupted, the ambulance slowly made its way out 0:20:15.320 --> 0:20:18.760 while Travis was screaming, I want to make this motherfucking 0:20:18.840 --> 0:20:22.760 ground shake. God damn it. He was the quote unquote 0:20:22.960 --> 0:20:27.000 maestro directing the chaos, as The Washington Post once wrote 0:20:27.040 --> 0:20:31.840 about him, exhibiting that trademark unhinged leaping, as Rolling Stone 0:20:31.880 --> 0:20:35.000 magazine put it when they compared Travis Scott's frantic stage 0:20:35.040 --> 0:20:39.960 presence to Michael Jackson's iconic Moonwalk. But Travis Scott didn't 0:20:40.000 --> 0:20:43.760 do Moonwalk's. He didn't glide on the ground. He shook it. 0:20:45.040 --> 0:20:47.760 At nine thirty eight pm, a little over a half 0:20:47.800 --> 0:20:50.879 hour into Travis scott set, the Houston Fire Department had 0:20:50.920 --> 0:20:54.160 seen enough, way too many calls for people being trampled, 0:20:54.280 --> 0:20:57.479 passing out in need of CPR or another urgent medical attention. 0:20:58.160 --> 0:21:04.679 At that moment, Houston Fire officially declared Asterworld a mass 0:21:04.840 --> 0:21:09.200 casualty event. Houston PD informed the festival's promoters that the 0:21:09.240 --> 0:21:13.040 show had to end right now, but the show didn't end. 0:21:13.680 --> 0:21:16.800 The monster wasn't ready to go back in its box. 0:21:22.680 --> 0:21:33.280 We'll be right back after this. We're We're where ten pm, 0:21:33.760 --> 0:21:37.359 twenty two minutes after the Houston Fire Department declared Astorworld 0:21:37.560 --> 0:21:42.280 a mass casualty event, Travis Scott continued to perform, and 0:21:42.359 --> 0:21:45.320 he was doing so now with a surprise guests, the 0:21:45.400 --> 0:21:49.280 Toronto rapper and singer Drake, who joined Travis on stage 0:21:49.320 --> 0:21:53.520 to euphoric applause from the crowd below. Meanwhile, in that 0:21:53.640 --> 0:21:57.480 same crowd, medics made a desperate search for those who 0:21:57.520 --> 0:22:00.639 needed help. The cries of the wounded and the dying 0:22:00.720 --> 0:22:03.480 rang out, only to be drowned out by the throng. 0:22:04.760 --> 0:22:07.280 Bodies were being hauled over barricades and passed over her 0:22:07.280 --> 0:22:11.280 shoulders as if they were crowdsurfing, But these bodies were limped, 0:22:11.840 --> 0:22:15.160 and in many cases the medics on hand were ill equipped, 0:22:15.680 --> 0:22:20.520 no defibrillators, no oxygen, just to their bare hands. One 0:22:20.560 --> 0:22:23.600 medic did have a backboard to transport an unconscious woman, 0:22:24.000 --> 0:22:27.520 but the backboard had no straps. It was a struggle 0:22:27.520 --> 0:22:29.800 to carry the body through the crowd of people, and 0:22:29.840 --> 0:22:33.879 many didn't move aside. Others were oblivious. Two caught up 0:22:33.880 --> 0:22:37.800 in the sight and sound of Drake and Travis on stage, 0:22:37.960 --> 0:22:41.120 the medics lost their grip and the unconscious woman began 0:22:41.160 --> 0:22:44.159 to slide out of the backboard with no straps. She 0:22:44.280 --> 0:22:49.119 hit the ground directly on her head. Elsewhere, another ambulance 0:22:49.160 --> 0:22:52.359 made of a labored slog through thousands of people. A 0:22:52.400 --> 0:22:54.560 couple of fans jumped on top of the vehicle and 0:22:54.600 --> 0:22:58.840 began to dance on it. One concert goer later compared 0:22:58.880 --> 0:23:01.040 the sight of people trapped to the crowd the pigs 0:23:01.040 --> 0:23:06.320 in a cage. Others said they were literally in hell. 0:23:06.480 --> 0:23:10.479 At ten fourteen pm, fourteen minutes after Drake's arrival and 0:23:10.520 --> 0:23:13.639 now over half an hour since the mass casualty event declaration, 0:23:14.359 --> 0:23:18.080 Travis Scott finished the last song of the night. Pastor 0:23:18.119 --> 0:23:22.400 World was officially over, just one minute after a twenty 0:23:22.440 --> 0:23:26.800 three year old attendee, the festival's first fatality, died at 0:23:26.800 --> 0:23:32.720 a nearby hospital. Ten people in total died from injuries 0:23:32.760 --> 0:23:35.720 sustained at Astorworld that night, all of them in their 0:23:35.720 --> 0:23:38.280 teens or twenties, with the exception of a nine year 0:23:38.320 --> 0:23:42.320 old boy. I told you about him earlier. Ezra Blunt 0:23:42.800 --> 0:23:45.320 fell off his father's shoulders when the crowd surge hit 0:23:45.359 --> 0:23:48.439 them from behind. His father could not find him, and 0:23:48.480 --> 0:23:51.760 did not find him until much later, when Ezra turned 0:23:51.840 --> 0:23:54.680 up as a John Doe at the hospital. He was 0:23:54.720 --> 0:23:58.440 put into a medically induced coma and died shortly thereafter. 0:24:00.000 --> 0:24:02.800 The News of the Astor World tragedy quickly hit the wires. 0:24:03.280 --> 0:24:06.120 The next morning, Travis Scott issued a statement that read, 0:24:06.160 --> 0:24:09.920 in part, I'm absolutely devastated by what took place last night. 0:24:10.320 --> 0:24:12.440 My prayers go out to the families and all those 0:24:12.480 --> 0:24:17.199 impacted by what happened at astra World festival. On TikTok, Instagram, 0:24:17.280 --> 0:24:20.679 and Facebook, survivors posted videos they had taken during the 0:24:20.720 --> 0:24:24.960 show that clearly documented the harrowing sequence of events. With 0:24:25.080 --> 0:24:28.080 those videos came not just outrage and shock from other 0:24:28.160 --> 0:24:32.600 users online, but some extremely disturbing interpretations of what was 0:24:32.720 --> 0:24:36.920 really going on or so some were saying. The search 0:24:37.040 --> 0:24:42.000 term Astoral World sacrifice began to trend on TikTok. The 0:24:42.000 --> 0:24:47.040 so called interpretations followed Astor World was a Satanic ritual, 0:24:47.520 --> 0:24:51.040 astra a World was a quote unquote energy harvest in 0:24:51.080 --> 0:24:54.440 which Travis Scott put people under a spell and snatched 0:24:54.480 --> 0:24:58.440 their souls. Just look at the demonic imagery, the flames, 0:24:58.600 --> 0:25:02.360 the giant I stage that looked like an inverted cross, 0:25:02.760 --> 0:25:05.920 the shirt Travis was wearing with cartoon figures walking through 0:25:05.960 --> 0:25:08.480 a portal and emerging with what seemed to be horns 0:25:08.480 --> 0:25:11.720 on their head. And this is the sampling of what 0:25:11.760 --> 0:25:15.199 people were writing on TikTok and Twitter and elsewhere. If 0:25:15.240 --> 0:25:17.280 you don't believe that there was nothing demonic about the 0:25:17.280 --> 0:25:20.119 whole concert, you are spiritually blind. And I pray that 0:25:20.200 --> 0:25:23.760 God opens your eyes. I'm a big fan of Travis Scott, 0:25:23.920 --> 0:25:27.440 but this is some demonic ass shit in this one, 0:25:27.840 --> 0:25:30.520 which referred to the fact that Astor World attendees were 0:25:30.520 --> 0:25:33.119 required to have proof of a negative COVID test or 0:25:33.160 --> 0:25:38.320 a COVID vaccination quote jab plus five g in frequency 0:25:38.359 --> 0:25:44.400 at concert equal dead unquote, just to reiterate the imagery 0:25:44.520 --> 0:25:46.919 and the video in the first hand accounts coming out 0:25:46.960 --> 0:25:49.919 of Astor World were so fucked up that people were 0:25:49.960 --> 0:25:54.080 saying jab plus five g and frequency at concert equal dead. 0:25:54.760 --> 0:25:57.920 In other words, that this was some mass conspiracy involving 0:25:57.920 --> 0:26:00.920 the government and the music industry to kill people at 0:26:00.920 --> 0:26:04.400 a Travis Scott show. Coming out of the COVID pandemic 0:26:04.640 --> 0:26:07.400 didn't bring us together, it started to pull us even 0:26:07.440 --> 0:26:13.560 further apart. Consider this. The very next day, November sixth, 0:26:13.800 --> 0:26:17.360 Troy Finner, Houston's chief of Police, held a press conference, 0:26:17.640 --> 0:26:20.879 a portion of which was spent addressing these wild rumors 0:26:20.880 --> 0:26:24.440 that were circulating online. He reminded people to be respectful 0:26:24.440 --> 0:26:26.399 of the families of those who had been killed and 0:26:26.480 --> 0:26:29.640 to follow the facts and the evidence. He said there 0:26:29.680 --> 0:26:31.960 were a lot of narratives out there, including one in 0:26:32.000 --> 0:26:35.200 which Astorworld had been a targeted attack by an individual 0:26:35.200 --> 0:26:39.120 who was running around and injecting people with drugs. TMZ 0:26:39.400 --> 0:26:41.879 was one of the news outlets peddling this narrative, saying 0:26:42.160 --> 0:26:45.199 a source connected to Astorworld told him that the crowd 0:26:45.240 --> 0:26:48.040 crush was due to the panic that ensued when we're 0:26:48.119 --> 0:26:51.320 got around that some crazy person was stabbing people with 0:26:51.359 --> 0:26:55.000 a needle and shooting them up. At the press conference, 0:26:55.240 --> 0:26:59.880 Houston's chief of Police did not shut down this particular story. Instead, 0:27:00.320 --> 0:27:04.159 Chief Troy Finner went on to essentially confirm this story. 0:27:04.760 --> 0:27:06.800 He said that, according to medical staff, one of Astor 0:27:06.880 --> 0:27:09.720