A crowd of fans were crushed during a Pitbul concert at the university sending three people to the hospital with injuries.
Not everyone had the time of their lives seeing Pitbull for free at the University of Texas at Austin on Sunday.
Officials report three people were taken to the hospital following a crowd surge.
Sunday night’s event, celebrating the university’s transition to the Southeastern Conference, attracted thousands to campus.
“I mean, it was phenomenal. I was dozens of people out there just having the best time of their lives,” said Santiago Barrachina.
What started as a fun night took a terrifying turn when Miami’s Pitbull took the stage. With about 50,000 attendees, the situation became too much.
“We were like, on the right before the steps to where it was gated. So we did get to see the pushing and shoving, and that’s when we decided to move out,” said Angelica Garcia.
The incident was reminiscent of a South by Southwest event in 2014 in which Tyler the Creator was accused of inciting a riot. As well as in 2021, at a Travis Scott concert in Houston where 10 people were crushed to death.
“Oh, yeah. I think that was on everyone’s minds. Right,” said Shane Bean. “You know that it’s barricaded. You’re shoulder to shoulder with everyone, but yeah, no, it was a good time, though.”
“Going forward, what would you recommend to the university for the next one,” said a local reporter.
“I guess I mean, it would have been nice if they had more of a plan with that many people showing up, right,” said Bean. “It just seemed like they barricaded the place and let people in, I guess. Yeah, maybe a little bit more forethought about having so many people come in.”
Many students like Alejandra Lugo said the area chosen, the university’s clock tower, for the free concert was too small. An issue that should have been spotted right away.
“I would say to have in a more open area where people can walk freely in and out of the crowd, because that’s a problem that you can get when anyone can be invited to an open area free concert, especially. I think they should also be providing more water around like easily accessible to those more in the middle,” she said.
Pitbull nor the university have yet to publically address what happened at the concert.
