“It’s not a mosh pit if there’s no injuries.”

Those are the lyrics to Travis Scott’s ‘STARGAZING’, and a credo his fans have taken to heart as his performances have become known as “ragers”.

McCoskey knew this as well as anyone when he and his group of eight friends, including his younger brother, walked through the front gates of Scott’s Astroworld festival in Houston last Friday.

“Everyone knows when you buy a ticket to a Travis Scott concert what its going to be like,” said IU senior Jevan McCoskey. “You know what you’re getting yourself into at that point.”

He could also tell as soon as he walked through those gates that this performance would be different, and not in a good way. Little did he or anyone know that it would turn deadly.

McCoskey first became concerned as he and his group made their way over to the merchandise booth. He estimated that between 2,000 and 3,000 concert-goers had packed in behind them in line just to buy apparel.

“You waited in line for merch, and there wasn’t actually  a line,” McCoskey said. “It was just kind of like a glob of people. And the closer you got to buy merch, the more tight and compact it got.’

While in line he watched a large group of people bust down the security gates and break into the festival.

“That’s where you realized that ‘Ok this is terribly mismanaged.’”

After waiting for over four hours McCoskey and his group left the line to go see the performers. But as the day wore on the sense of danger heightened.

 

At one point, during the performance of rapper Lil Baby, a fellow concert-goer fell unconscious in front of McCoskey.

“I was talking to this girl right in front of me, and I turned around to say something to my brother and I just felt my leg cave in,” McCoskey said. “I looked down really fast, and this girl, just absolutely passed out. Two seconds ago she was totally fine.”

With more than two hours before Scott would even perform, it proved to be an ominous sign of things to come.

As the more than 50,000 spectators began filling in around Scott’s stage the pressure literally increased on McCoskey and his brother, who were near the middle of the crowd.

“As soon as he comes out, you could just feel a push from the back,” McCoskey  said. “Where we were, if I looked down I couldn’t see my shoes.

During the performance McCoskey had his phone out, filming Scott. But in the upper right hand corner of his shot he captured a different angle of a now viral TikTok. In the exchange a girl is pleading with a camera man to stop the concert, saying there are people on the ground dead.

McCoskey and his brother were a mere 15 or so feet away. He said they had no idea how dangerous the situation had become in front of them.

“So how is someone on stage, performing a show, supposed to know that there are people passed out,” said McCoskey. “Or even dead?”

The show continued nonetheless, and when Scott brought out Canadian rapper Drake, things took a turn for the worst.

“I’m at a loss for words… just how bad it got so fast,” said McCoskey. “In the blink of an eye, him rising out of the stage and people falling, not being able to get up and just being trampled.”

Scott ended the performance 15 minutes early, and as McCoskey and his group left, the carnage became evident.

“It turned into like war,” said McCoskey.

He recounted seeing bloodied faces, broken limbs, and bodies stacked in the VIP section as EMTs frantically tried to rescue victims.

As of November 15^th, the casualty count sat at 10, with hundreds more injured.

“People were so worried about getting the best spot they possibly could, that they just kind of forgot about everyone else,” said McCoskey.

Scott has offered to pay for the funerals of all the victims, and a full refund was issued to all the attendees of the festival, which was cut short by a day.

But the peace of mind for concert goers like McCoskey will be harder to get back.

“I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to go to a concert again.”