What Survivors Have Said and Where They Are Now

NEED TO KNOW

• In November 2021, 10 people died at the Astroworld music festival amid a crowd surge
• Travis Scott’s music festival is the center of the 2025 Netflix documentary Trainwreck: The Astroworld Tragedy
• Several survivors and the victims’ family members have spoken out about the events

In November 2021, 10 people tragically died as a result of a deadly crowd surge at Travis Scott’s Astroworld music festival.

The then-annual music festival, which took place in Scott’s hometown of Houston, was a highly-anticipated concert that took a turn after the rapper took the stage on Nov. 5, 2021. The recent Netflix documentary Trainwreck: The Astroworld Tragedy, which premiered on June 10, interviewed several survivors who recounted the devastating day.

“I just remember thinking, ‘Don’t fall down, because you won’t make it back up,’ ” concertgoer Sophia Santana recalled.

Eight victims died on the night of the concert, while two more people died in the hospital as a result of their injuries. The youngest victim was just 9 years old when he died.

In addition, 25 people were transported to hospitals and nearly 5,000 people were injured. Since the tragedy occurred, several of the victims’ family members have spoken out about their loved ones. Many of the survivors have also shared their memories of the incident.

Here’s everything to know about where some of the Astroworld survivors are now and what they’ve said about Travis Scott’s tragic music festival.

What happened during the 2021 Astroworld Music Festival?

Travis Scott performs during Astroworld Festival on November 05, 2021 in Houston, Texas.

Erika Goldring/WireImage

On Nov. 5, 2021, Scott hosted his Astroworld music festival for the third time in Houston. The festival, which was organized by Live Nation, sold 50,000 tickets.

Shortly after Scott began performing, attendees began pushing and rushing towards the stage. Thousands of people surged forward and a massive crowd crush took place. Since the stage could only be approached from the left side, it resulted in a “trap” in that area, safety expert Scott Davidson said in the Netflix documentary, Trainwreck: The Astroworld Tragedy. All 10 victims who died were on the left side of the stage.

Even though people were chanting, “Stop the show,” authorities didn’t call Scott off the stage until an hour into his concert. In the documentary, Davidson explained that authorities didn’t intervene because they wanted to avoid “crowd panic.”

Meanwhile, Scott has maintained that he did not hear screams for help when the crowd surge began and claimed that the concert felt “like a regular show.”

Amid the crowd surge, medics began helping those who had suffered injuries. However, eight people died on the day of the concert, while two people died in the hospital as a result of their injuries. According to a medical examiner, all 10 Astroworld deaths were caused by compression asphyxiation, per CNN.

After the concert, 10 wrongful death civil suits were filed against Scott, Live Nation and other parties involved. All 10 have since been settled privately, according to the Associated Press.

In 2023, a grand jury declined to indict Scott on criminal charges.

Who died at Astroworld?

Rudy Peña ; Brianna Rodriguez ; John Hilgert.

Courtesy Jennifer Peña ; Brianna Rodriguez/Facebook ; Courtesy Hilgert 

A total of 10 victims, ranging in age from 9 to 27, died as a result of the crowd crush at Astroworld in November 2021.

The deceased victims included Axel Acosta, Mirza Danish Baig, Rodolfo “Rudy” Peña, Madison Dubiski, Franco Patiño, Jacob Jurinek, John Hilgert, Bharti Shahan, Brianna Rodriguez and Ezra Blount.

What have the victims’ friends and families said about their loved ones?

Visitors look at the memorial outside of the canceled Astroworld festival at NRG Park on November 7, 2021 in Houston, Texas.

Alex Bierens de Haan/Getty

Shortly after the festival, the victims’ families, friends and loved ones spoke out about their deaths.

Rudy Peña’s brother-in-law Sergio Gonzalez told PEOPLE, “We learned in the worst way. We found out around 12:30 last night from a friend of Rudy that was with him that he had just passed out. It wasn’t until this afternoon that we found out he had died.”

Two 21-year-old victims, Franco Patiño and Jacob Jurinek, were best friends. Franco’s older brother, Julio Patiño Jr., told PEOPLE that his younger brother “had such a big heart” and was “always going above and beyond and helping others.” Meanwhile, Jacob’s father Ron Jurinek told PEOPLE that his son “was the sweetest kid you’d ever want to meet. [He had] the biggest heart in the world.”

Meanwhile, Mirza Danish Baig died after saving his fiancée Olivia Swingle from the crowd surge. His brother Ammar Baig told PEOPLE at the time, “He managed to get it to where she was able to get out. That’s the type guy he was — always put other people ahead of him.”

Bharti Shahani was the ninth victim who died after suffering critical injuries at the festival. Her mom, Karishma Shahani, said at a press conference after announcing her death, “Bharti is love. I want my baby back … I won’t be able to live without her.”

The youngest victim was Ezra Blount, a 9-year-old boy who attended the concert with his father, Treston Blount. Ezra died after falling from his dad’s shoulders and passed away in the hospital after he was placed in a medically induced coma.

While Ezra was on life support, Treston told ABC13 Houston, “I could tell that he was damaged. I’m not ready to lose my boy at all. We still got a bunch of living to do … That’s my boy.”

Where are the Astroworld survivors now?

Raul and Marcial in Trainwreck: The Astroworld Tragedy.

Courtesy of Netflix ©2025

Several survivors who attended the concert or lost loved ones at the festival have shared their stories.

In Trainwreck: The Astroworld Tragedy, one of Brianna Rodriguez’s friends, Ayden, recalled feeling “a certain fear” during Scott’s performance.

“One of those waves just hit both me and Bri. We all fell to our backs. I could hear her in pain. You know, asking ‘Help me get out,’ and stuff like that,” he said. “I was the second layer. There was people under me and then me falling on my back and then people stacking on top of me.”

He continued, “I felt like the more I kept fighting it, the more I was wasting energy. Like if you’re holding your breath underwater. I could feel the oxygen just leaving my body.”

Ayden remembered thinking “it felt like forever” that he was down, until he “saw someone’s face” and that person “pulled me out.”

“I just remember feeling so many different things. Where’s Mikaela? Did Bri get out?” he shared. “I felt like I’m helpless. I knew Bri was in that area still struggling. I just wanted to find some help.”

Ayden later found out that Rodriguez had been taken to the hospital, but by the time he arrived, he was told that doctors couldn’t “do anything” to save her.

Elsewhere in the documentary, a concertgoer named Arturo said, “My love for Travis was definitely, at one point, boiling hot … hate is a strong word. But I just can’t support that anymore.”

“For the first time in my life, I felt like true depression and true anxiety,” Arturo added. “Because I didn’t think I was more deserving of other people to make it out. Why me and why not them?”

On one positive note, Arturo and Santana — a nurse who helped save Arturo amid a heart attack during the show — have remained friends.

“There’s no way that this all happened and we don’t talk afterwards,” Santana said in the documentary.

“Hopefully, we’re friends forever,” Arturo added.

Beyond the Netflix documentary, several survivors of the Astroworld tragedy have spoken about their experience and recounted terrifying details.One concertgoer, David McGilver, told PEOPLE at the time that he was “upset” with Scott for not stopping the show sooner.

“I still can hear this in my head — I remember me being on the ground and the music stopping and I could hear [Scott] say, ‘Y’all know what y’all came here for.’ And you can hear everybody screaming out for help,” said McGilver. “And then the music just plays back again,” he said.

What has Travis Scott said about the Astroworld tragedy?

Travis Scott at the GQ Men of the Year Party on November 16, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.

Phillip Faraone/Getty

Scott, who has denied any knowledge of seeing the crowd surge while performing, posted on X the day after the concert took place.

“I’m absolutely devastated by what took place last night. My prayers go out to the families and all those impacted by what happened at Astroworld Festival,” he wrote at the time. “Houston PD has my total support as they continue to look into the tragic loss of life.”

After sending the message, he posted on his Instagram Stories claiming that he was unaware of the “severity of the situation.”

“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 to assist them through this tough time,” he said. “My fans really mean the world to me, and I always want to leave them with a positive experience.”

One month after the tragedy, Scott sat down with Charlamagne Tha God for his first interview since the event and claimed that he didn’t hear people begging him to stop the show.

“Anytime you can hear something like that, you want to stop the show, you want to make sure fans get the proper attention they need. And anytime I could see anything like that, I did,” Scott said. “I stopped it like a couple times to just make sure everybody was OK. I really just go off of the fans’ energy as a collective and I just didn’t hear that.”

He further explained how he was focusing on the show itself — including the music, lights and production — so “everything kind of just sounds the same.”

Two years after the tragedy, Scott said that he feels a “constant weight” on his heart from the tragedy.

“I always think about it. Those fans were like my family,” Scott told GQ in an interview published in November 2023. “You just feel for those people. And their families.”

He recalled feeling how “overly devastating” that time was for him and that it took “months and months and months” for him to start making music again. However, he also added that it was “therapeutic” for him to be “able to channel some of the energy” into new music.

“Making music, you think about things that go on in life and things that happen in your life, and you dial in on things. That moment for families, for the city, you know, it was devastating,” he said.