FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) - For the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic shut it down, the Tortuga Music Festival has once again taken on Fort Lauderdale Beach.

7News cameras on Friday night captured concertgoers as they flocked to event, which has been running for nearly a decade.

“I am like an adamant at country music fan, that is all I listen to,” said a concertgoer.

“Just everybody having a good time,” said another attendee.

With all these happy people comes a lot of traffic. On U.S. 1 and beyond, security was visible around the venue.

This year, worst-case scenarios elsewhere are on people’s minds.

In Houston, nine people were killed and 90 lawsuits have been filed in the tragic disaster that was Astroworld last week.

Investigators said thousands of people rushed the stage of the annual event hosted and headlined by Travis Scott.

The nightmare trampling persisted, as did the show, despite pleas from the desperate crowd for it to stop.

Two Tortuga concertgoers who are visiting from the New York area said they chose to keep their distance from the big crowds.

“We stayed out here for that reason. We didn’t want to be as close to the crowd, and we figured that we could enjoy the concert from a distance,” said a concertgoer.

The New York concertgoers said they will play the rest of the weekend by ear, as they listened to the music from just outside the festival fence.

This year’s Tortuga Music Festival is set to wrap up on Saturday. For more information, click here.

Copyright 2024 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Join our Newsletter for the latest news right to your inbox