Fiasco total: La tragedia de Astroworld

I just finished watching this documentary, and I must say, I'm both impressed and massively devastated. It's hard to comment on the filmmaking when the subject matter is so reprehensible, but I need to give props to the documentarians for weaving together an emotionally engaging, yet fair and balanced narrative drawn from numerous first-hand accounts. I particularly liked the input from the gentleman working for the company that performed the investigation, calling the concert promoters and artists to task by revealing the many blatant planning and safety transgressions leading to all those pointless deaths. Shame be upon them and their misguided greed. I hope they've learned from their grievous humanitarian error, thus enabling them to put their shame in the rearview.

As "Trainwreck: The AstroWorld Tragedy" (2025 release; 80 min.) opens, it is "November 5, 2021" and Travis Scott headlines Live Nation's AstroWorld festival that he started in 2018. It's the first big event in Houston after COVID, and people are ready to party, and party hard. The venue is massive so what in the world could go wrong? Turns out, plenty... At this point we are 10 minutes into the documentary.

Couple of comments: I remember these events vaguely but had not seen any footage or further analysis of it, until now. This documentary lays it all out in a clear and concise manner, including plenty of interviews with people that were there: festival goers, but also a Live Nation photographer, a professional event planner, and even 2security guards who, believe it or not, were hired the day before the festival started and seemingly without any prior experience in security services. It soon becomes very clear that things are going terribly wrong, with tragic results. Surely someone is going to be held accountable, right? How about Travis Scott, who has a prior record of inciting crowds (we see footage of a prior Lollapalooza show where he incites the crowd to rush the stage, and then, SHOKCER (not), the crowd does exactly that). We see details of the horrendous layout of the site, essentially turning the space into several inescapable death traps. We see texts from Live Nation officials as the concert is starting that they fear the worst, including death. Watching this documentary is not easy and certainly is not a lot of fun. In fact, I felt incensed and angry, as this tragedy did not have to happen, but instead, as one talking head puts it, they "ignored blaring warning signs". For shame.

"Trainwreck: The AstroWorld Tragedy" started airing on Netflix last week. If you wonder how a large music festival botches so much in so little time, I'd readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion.

This was really heartbreaking and scary to watch. Most people go to a concert and never think this could or would happen. I'm shocked that the planning was so poor, considering Live Nation is the biggest concert organizer in the world.

The lack of safety and planning is absolutely atrocious. My heart goes out to the victims and their families. This was just awful and devastating, but something everyone needs to watch. Large crowds are not safe. You really never know what will transpire attending something like this.

If you find yourself in this position, please get out ASAP if you're able to.

When this incident happened, I was glued to social media as it was all going down. Once the concert attendees were tearing down gates and barriers to enter the venue, I wasn't surprised the disaster happened. I had never seen anything like that before and I have been to a lot of concerts. I'm not sure if it was just unruliness that came from youth finally being allowed out of the house for a music event mid-pandemic. My heart goes out to the families of the people lost at the concert. Nobody expects going to a concert would lead to a family member's demise. Doesn't seem like anyone was held accountable in the end and Travis Scott still continues to be a popular artist though I can't name any of his songs.

The world opened up in 2021 after the COVID-19 pandemic. World-famous rapper Travis Scott put on another huge event, a two-day Astroworld festival. Tickets sold out in thirty minutes. As people arrived at the site, the chaos began; all control was lost, and people stormed the gates. The concert began, and a massive crowd tried to reach the front of the stage.

This is the most harrowing in the Trainwreck series that I've seen so far, this one is truly disturbing, it simply should not have happened.

Nobody seemed willing to take any responsibility for what happened; everyone played a part, from the encouragement to go too far from the stage, to the ineptitude of the security team, Live Nation, the planners, and the crowd themselves. It must have been terrifying for those in the crowd; absolutely awful.

The discussion about the compression of people is horrific, and the footage of people being crushed on stage is genuinely grotesque; it's sickening. The interviews are almost too much, they really hit hard.

If you're in the UK or a football fan, you'll be aware of the Hillsborough tragedy, where people were crushed at an overcrowded stadium-something that should never have happened, nor should the events here.

Ayden Cruz, respect! The fabulous nurse too, huge respect! They're the real superstars.

It should not have happened.

8/10.