The Route 91 Harvest was in its fourth year and sold out of tickets before anyone even took the stage.
The Las Vegas music festival where Sunday night’s horrific mass shooting took place was in its fourth year and had been a major draw for country music fans ever since its inception.
Located outdoors within the famed Las Vegas strip, this year’s Route 91 Festival sold out of passes before anyone took the stage this past weekend.
The event was created by entertainment and live-music giant Live Nation as a way of bringing together some of country music’s biggest stars for a three-day weekend full of powerful performances.
This year’s festival — which ran from Sept. 29 through Oct. 1 — featured major headliners including Eric Church on Friday, Sam Hunt on Saturday and Jason Aldean on Sunday.
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Aldean was performing onstage when a gunman located on the 32nd floor of the nearby Mandalay Resort and Hotel opened fire on the crowd, killing at least 50 people and injuring over 400 more in what is the deadliest public mass shooting to ever take place on American soil.
The crowd at this year’s festival included 22,000 attendees, according to CNN, though it’s unclear how many people were there at the time of the shooting.
People spent $210 for a general admission three-day weekend pass, while some spent as much as $750 for access to a VIP suite.
Aldean was the final performer of the weekend. Earlier performers included Lee Brice, Maren Morris, Jake Owen, Big & Rich, Kane Brown and Josh Abbot Band.
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Owen had recently completed his set when the shooting began, but remained near the stage to support his fellow singer.
« It was ringing off the top of the stage, hitting trailers, people scattering, » Owen said of the gunfire in a Monday-morning interview with CNN. « It was chaos. I have never and don’t ever want to be part of anything like this again. »
Aldean, meanwhile, expressed his heartbreak in an Instagram post shortly after the attack, adding that he and his team were safe.
« Tonight has been beyond horrific, » he wrote.
« My thoughts and prayers go out to everyone involved tonight. It hurts my heart that this would happen to anyone who was just coming out to enjoy what should have been a fun night. »
Police found suspected shooter Stephen Paddock, 64, dead by the time they made it to his hotel room.
Performers at past iterations of the Route 91 Harvest include big names like Luke Bryan, Miranda Lambert, Dierks Bentley, Lady Antebellum, Blake Shelton, Little Big Town, Brad Paisley, Toby Keith and Dustin Lynch.
