Hulu Removes Astroworld News Documentary After Facing Backlash
The special titled “Astroworld: Concert From Hell” was removed to “avoid confusion” about who produced it.
On Wednesday, Hulu released a new documentary detailing the deadly events that occurred at Travis Scott’s festival in Houston last month, but it was quickly removed after immediate social media backlash.
Astroworld: Concert From Hell covers the music festival of 50,000 and how it quickly became a tragedy when crowd surging became fatal, causing 10 people to die. While many believe that it was a Hulu original production, it was actually a news special produced by KTRK, a local ABC station in Houston.
The description of the 50-minute special, which is still on Hulu, reads: “Travis Scott’s Astroworld Festival was supposed to be the concert of a lifetime. But it turned into a tragic nightmare. A minute-by-minute look at what happened in the crowd, the young victims who were killed, and what happens next.”
According to the statement a Hulu spokesperson told to Variety, “This was an investigative local news special from ABC13/KTRK-TV in Houston that originally aired on November 20th. This was not a Hulu documentary and has since been removed to avoid confusion.”
A viral tweet from commenter @LilAioli read: “Hulu making a documentary about Astroworld is in poor taste all around. People are still burying their loved ones. The legal cases haven’t even started. Great documentaries are done when all the facts are laid out. Not enough time has passed to fully discuss this.”
Although Scott gave full refunds to every Astroworld attendee, several lawsuits have been filed, naming Scott, guest performer Drake, Live Nation, and individuals associated with NRG Park and Scoremore Holdings as defendants.
Scott has been apologetic about the situation, and says he wasn’t aware that concert-goers were being injured during his set. Additionally, many families of the victims turned down his offer to pay for their funeral costs. The special is still available to view on ABC 13 KTRK’s website, and it says it can also be streamed on Roku, Apple TV, Google, TV, and more services.