Trainwreck: The Astroworld Tragedy, a Netflix documentary directed by Yemi Bamiro with co-direction and production from Hannah Poulter, tracks the bad planning and questionable decision-making that contributed to the deaths of 10 people who attended a large Travis Scott concert in the superstar rapper’s hometown of Houston. Too large, actually: from the minute NRG Park opened on November 6, 2021, gatecrashers were forcing their way in. And from the perspective of the concertgoers, journalists, photographers, and health and safety personnel interviewed in Astroworld Tragedy, nobody with the authority to stop the show stepped up when it mattered most. It seems like paramedics in the aisles performing CPR on hypoxic victims would be reason enough to cut it short. But somehow Drake didn’t join Travis Scott on stage until after the tragedy was already happening.
The Gist: In November 2021, Houston’s young people were excited, because one of the first big music festivals after COVID-related shutdowns was happening right in town. Travis Scott, a six-times-platinum rap star who at the time was dating Kylie Jenner, was bringing back an even bigger version of Astroworld, the concert event that shared a title with his 2018 album and a defunct area theme park. Scott’s fans were called “Ragers,” and for Ayden, Kaia, Raul, Marcial, Manuel, Arturo, and Sophia – all interviewed in Trainwreck: The Astroworld Tragedy – they were ready to get hype. The festival was gonna be the spot to enjoy music from Scott, SZA, Roddy Ricch and others. To be seen, and to live their lives out loud in the festival’s “playground” atmosphere.
Instead, says Ayden, he was “stuffed into one spot,” and saw his friend pulled under by successive surging waves of thousands of people with nowhere to avoid the crush of bodies.
Astroworld Tragedy interviews concertgoers, those who covered the event, like journalist Mark Elibert and photographer Kirby Gladstein, security personnel and paramedics hired for Astroworld, and Scott Davidson, a crowd safety expert. And Davidson’s quotes – “When looking at the evidence in this case, I was shocked at what I found” – are a big part of where this film feels like it’s trying to be true crime instead of a documentary.
“What was going on was so totally predictable,” says Mark Lentini, a former commander with the Houston police. “There didn’t seem to be any contingency plans.” Lentini says crowd control wasn’t up to the cops – it was supposed to be handled by Live Nation, the gigantic entertainment company which organized the event. But footage from phones and social media show how Astroworld was an unorganized madhouse from the second it began. By 9pm, as Scott appeared on a stage that resembled a pink neon mountain – “12-figure estate plan/That was the escape plan” – fans were getting cornered in a system of barriers that left no safe egress, let alone an escape plan for them. 8 people would die from their injuries that night, and two more at area hospitals.
At 9:40, Scott spoke from the stage. He could see people passed out. But minutes later, he was still performing, even as paramedics were overrun with CPR cases. As Drake appeared for his verse on “Sicko Mode,” and the crowd grew into an even greater frenzy, Elibert says he couldn’t believe the show was still happening. “And then [Travis Scott] goes back to performing, and I’m like ‘No – what are you doing, bro?”
What Movies Will It Remind You Of? In 2021, shortly after the tragedy, Hulu quickly removed a news special about the incident after encountering backlash on social media. (It has not returned to the streamer.) In 2022, the first full documentary about Astroworld appeared, and Concert Crush, directed by Charlie Minn, is similar to Astroworld Tragedy in its inclusion of interviews with concertgoers. That doc also interviews attorneys associated with the many lawsuits that followed the tragedy.
But Trainwreck: The Astroworld Tragedy isn’t even the only “Trainwreck” doc Netflix is promoting. Parts of the 2022 docuseries Trainwreck: Woodstock ‘99 felt exploitative, and the internet noticed. But here in 2025, the streamer has tacked the “Trainwreck” tag onto Astroworld Tragedy and at least four upcoming other documentaries, including Trainwreck: Mayor of Mayhem and Trainwreck: Poop Cruise. Maybe it’s Netflix that’s trying to turn these incidents into fodder for true crime watchers.
Finally, we would be remiss if we didn’t mention the grandaddy of all documentaries about concert tragedies: 1970’s Gimme Shelter, which focused on the incident that unfolded during at Altamont during a chaotic performance by the Rolling Stones that left one man dead and a nation scarred.
Performance Worth Watching: One clip widely shared on social media in the days after the Astroworld crush showed concertgoers climbing onto camera platforms to call out the chaos occurring in the mosh pit areas. Ayden, one of those young fans, is interviewed in Astroworld Tragedy. While he screamed “People are fucking dying! Stop the show!,” Ayden says lots of other fans weren’t willing to back him up.
Memorable Dialogue: Crowd safety expert Scott Davidson: “I provide public safety management in high risk environments. In an ideal scenario, we’re brought on for the site design of an event. But more often than not, we’re brought on after some sort of critical incident has occured. In the aftermath of the Astroworld tragedy, I was asked to work with Live Nation. I wanted to look honestly at what occurred. I was in receipt of a treasure trove of evidence. This was not a case of missing red flags. This was a case of ignoring blaring warning signs.”
Sex and Skin: None.
Our Take: A random still photo of Travis Scott with Live Nation honcho Michael Rapino appears throughout Trainwreck: The Astroworld Tragedy, kind of like a silent statement to the company’s close relationship with its biggest stars and collaborators. Disclaimers at the end of the documentary describe how Scott mounted a subsequent world tour, booked by Live Nation, to the tune of hundreds of millions in revenue. And while no one affiliated directly with the company speaks on the record in Astroworld Tragedy, Live Nation’s statement to the filmmakers is posted in full. Short version: it wasn’t our fault. But this doc’s position, while never directly stated, seems to be the opposite. From the perspective of Scott Davidson, the crowd expert, from Kirby Gladstein, the photographer – “Live Nation holds so much of what happens in this industry in the palm of its hand, so by talking about what happened at Astroworld, I know I’m jeopardizing my career” – from concertgoers interviewed, and the families of fans who died in the crush, it’s Live Nation that is the boogeyman behind the scenes, and the entity that bears the most blame. “For so many who just think Travis Scott is at fault,” says Jackson Bush, who worked security at Astroworld, “you’re creating a void for a lot of people that organized that concert to step back and not even be in the light.”
Our perspective? We’re not even sure why Trainwreck: The Astroworld Tragedy exists. It skirts around placing real blame on Live Nation – it notes how the lawsuits were settled out of court – and spends a lot of time with interview subjects who sort of say that but also sort of don’t. It gives voice to concertgoers who lost friends in the tragedy, but leaves with them asking questions about accountability. And it dwells on a glut of jarring footage from phones in the Astroworld crowd – people disappearing beneath others’ arms and legs; cries of “I can’t breathe!” – but can’t connect these moments with much more than the concert’s abrupt end and the sad realization of the deaths that followed. Is this doc meant to explore the culpability of Live Nation and others in true crime fashion? Or is it just here as a window on mayhem from the comfort of one’s couch?
Our Call: Well, Trainwreck: The Astroworld Tragedy does a solid job of laying out how everything at Travis Scott’s 2021 concert pretty much went wrong. But to truly be a STREAM IT, we feel like it would have to offer something more definitive than simply being a part of Netflix’s track record of Trainwreck docs.
Johnny Loftus (@johnnyloftus.bsky.social) is a Chicago-based writer. A veteran of the alternative weekly trenches, his work has also appeared in Entertainment Weekly, Pitchfork, The All Music Guide, and The Village Voice.