HOUSTON – Seyth Boardman, the Safety and Risk Director for the deadly 2021 Astroworld festival, provided crucial testimony in the civil case regarding the festival where 10 people, including a nine-year-old, died due to a crowd surge and crush.
Assisting a Woman in Need
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The court document details how Boardman came into contact and carried a woman in his arms around 9:40 p.m. the night of the festival.
The attorney asked, “Do you have any recollection of carrying somebody in your arms who needed medical attention on the stage left side of that barricade?”
“I did carry someone in my arms. However, I thought I went stage right. But maybe I did go stage left. But I did have someone in my arms,” Boardman replied.
The lawyer followed up with, “The person you carried in your arms, is that the same female that you discussed yesterday that you actually caught, who was surfed out of the barricade that night?”
Boardman confirmed, “Yes.”
He told the lawyer he took the woman to a pre-planned medical triage area, noting there were such areas on both sides of the main stage.
Show-Stop Order and Response
A critical moment in Boardman’s testimony was his account of issuing the show-stop order.
He told Bilal ‘Bizzy’ Joseph to stop the concert by 10:00 p.m. Bizzy was the main person who could communicate with Travis Scott during the concert.
When asked if he heard Bizzy communicating the stop order to Scott, Boardman responded, “I could not hear what he said.”
Despite giving the order, its implementation was delayed, causing further chaos.
Boardman emphasized his urgency to shut down the concert over the radio with Marty Wallgren, who was part of the command and communication structure.
He remembers telling Wallgren, “Why is it not shut down, shut this down, kind of yelling on the radio for him to do it because I was upset it wasn’t shut down.”
Court documents state Wallgren was dealing with the Houston Police Department and attempting to stop the show.
Boardman also spoke with then Commander Thomas Hardin and Executive Assistant Chief Larry Satterwhite about the initial confusion and speculation about the causes of the tragedy at hand, including rumors of drug use and needle attacks.
“I don’t exactly recall our conversations, but it was the same type of thing of, what happened, how did it happen, things like that,” Boardman said.
Command Post Operations and Communications
One key area in Boardman’s testimony was the operation of the command post. Matt Eyer, a seasoned security pro, was in charge of monitoring the CCTV cameras and relaying important information.
Despite his extensive experience, there were no formal training procedures for command post operations, which raised questions about how prepared and effective the team was in handling emergencies.
Boardman pointed out that the command post staff, including Eyer, relied heavily on their practical experience.
“It’s years of experience, years of working with him,” Boardman said, emphasizing the dependence on hands-on knowledge over structured training.
It would take hours before emergency crews had a handle on the situation.
A Harris County grand jury declined to indict criminal charges on anyone involved with Astroworld.