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As Travis Scott, the popular Texas rapper, ascended the stage that Friday night on November 5, panic and despair rippled through the crowd of 50,000 primarily young people. A crowd surge at the concert turned one section of the audience into an epicenter of mayhem and anxiety, according to an analysis by crowd experts.
Spectators had already breached the main gate shortly after the festival began at 9 a.m., according to handwritten logs obtained by CNN on Friday. At least eight more breaches were reported throughout the day, with 3,000 to 5,000 concertgoers who were “not identified” entering the venue by 5:05 p.m., according to the logs.
Some people passed out. Others fought for fresh air. Concertgoers surfed the unconscious bodies of friends and strangers over the top of the crowd in the hopes of getting them to safety. Others yelled for CPR assistance and pleaded for the event to end.
Ten people died and hundreds more were injured during the performance, making it one of the deadliest concerts in history. The majority of those killed were in the south viewing area, where witnesses recounted people collapsing beneath the weight of the crowd.
“As one of his fans, I know how excited everyone was for it,” said Luca W., a freshman at AISG. “It’s sad to see how my favorite artist caused so many deaths in his concert.”
According to a study conducted by Carnegie Mellon University, there were as few as 1.85 square feet per person in portions of the densely packed area where many of the deceased were concentrated. Two crowd science experts stated that people were in the midst of a crowd that was at risk of dangerously collapsing in on itself.
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