Survivors of the Astroworld Festival tragedy tell their stories, 'It was very bad'

HOUSTON - The stories from survivors of the Astroworld Festival tragedy are unbelievable. 

"It was very bad. I’ve never been that scared for my life," says friends Kaia Redus and Zachary Scott who, one minute, were taking pictures and enjoying themselves at the Astroworld Festival but they say as a 30-minute timer counted down announcing when Travis Scott would take the stage fun turned to fear.

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"As soon as that timer hit zero everybody from the back started trying to push to the front. I couldn’t breathe," explains Zachary who says he’s left extremely sore, as of Saturday.

"You were like this close to the person in front of you," adds 19-year-old Redus who was heading to the Emergency Room to make sure she didn’t suffer internal damage. "Wherever your body was at, that’s where you had to stay. You couldn’t move. You saw people like laying over the person they were with, with their mouth open. You saw people covered in vomit."

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"It was a struggle to breathe. We were packed in there like sardines. I couldn’t move my arms like upward or outward at all. It was hot," says Jordan Bryan who was so close to the stage he took clear photos of Travis Scott and even a video of Scott summoning aid for someone in the crowd. "People were fainting. I was taking deep breaths, reaching as far as I could, up, so I could get fresh air. It was a struggle. I kind of just tried to stand on my tippy toes and just tried to reach for air. I feel like I only made it out because I’m so tall and that’s how I could get air. I was drenched in sweat by the time it was over," 

Jordan's spot seemed to be just one of the thousands of others. 

"There were like collectively being like 'push, push'," he says. "They were trying to get to the front. (You could hear people saying push?) Yeah, no one cared about anything. People would pass out and they’d be like get them out of here. Just no regard for human life. Their limp bodies were being crowd-surfed out." 

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"There were people passed out on the ground and you were getting pushed over them and then you’d trip and you’d get trampled over and people were screaming, screaming for help. Everybody was squished. I mean your ribs were getting crushed," says Zachary. Kaia ended up separated from Zachary and as she was being trampled only one person even made eye contact. "I was like begging him. I was like please help me. I do not want to die in here please help me and he did," says Kaia. 

"I felt like if hell was a place, if hell was real like I'm previewing it. It was that insane. I was scared for my life," adds Jordan. 

"You would get like a little glimpse of hope when the song stopped and you thought maybe they would hear you screaming for help and they would stop the concert but then he would start the next song," says Zachary.

Jim "Mattress Mack" McIngvale who is now vowing to help, from paying for funerals to hosting a prayer vigil, 

"And to make sure the mental health professionals are there to help the people that have long-term trauma," he said. "This is one of the most horrific things to ever happen in Houston so we have to support our community."

"It was like such a helpless feeling," Zachary explains. 

"Those lives were lost for no reason," says Kaia. 

"I feel so bad for the people who went to Astroworld to have fun and see Travis and just didn’t make it home," says Jordan.