Tragedy strikes LA’s Hard Summer Music Festival as mass shooting leaves two dead

A shooting erupted during a Hard Summer music festival after-party in downtown Los Angeles early on Monday, August 4, 2025, leaving two people dead and six injured. The mass shooting happened in the early hours of Monday, following the annual music festival.

The incident didn't affect the festival itself as it happened a couple of hours after the second day of the event closed. Performance from all five stages and two additional areas closed by 10:00 pm, with Dom Dolla, Deorro, Nico Moreno, Gesaffelstein, Adam Ten B2B Mita Gami, and Shay Elys Cquestt closing the 2025 festival.

According to Associated Press, the police arrived on the scene to shut down a "big party" around 11:00 pm local time on Sunday, August 3. However, hours later, around 1:00 am, authorities were called back to the same location following a report that there had been a shooting incident.

Authorities reportedly found that eight people have been injured by the gunfire, with one man declared dead at the scene. The seven were quickly taken to the hospital, where a woman later died from her injuries, while the are still in unknown conditions. However, a spokesperson told KTLA-TV, per Newsbreak, that at least one of the six injured was in critical condition.

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Hard Summer music festival 2025 featured a packed lineup

Hard Summer music festival is a 2-day event that has been a staple festival in California since it debuted in 2007. This year's festival was held on August 2 and 3 at Hollywood Park in Inglewood, near the SoFi Stadium, featuring a stacked lineup.

There were five distinct stages and two additional areas, with performances starting from 2:00 pm to 10:00 pm. On the first day of the festival, headliners included Busta Rhymes, FEID, Kaytranada, Sara Landry, MALUGI, Peekaboo, Crankdat, and more. Meanwhile, performances from Dom Dolla, Deorro, OZA, Nico Moreno, Ber Sterlin, and more hyped up the concertgoers on the second day.

The Hard Summer lineup of the 2-day music festival also featured back-to-back pairings from Torren Foot B2B Airwolf Paradise, Walker & Royce B2B VNSSA, Habstrackt B2B JST JR, and Tape B B2B Mersiv on the August 2 event. Meanwhile, Adam Ten B2B Mita Gami, KI/KI B2B DJ Gigola, and KILIMANJARO B2B Melé took the stage on the second day.

There were reportedly four official afterparties with additional music sets from various artists following the festival, which all started at 10:00 pm local time, per Hard Summer's website. Two of them were in the downtown area. However, according to Billboard, the supposed afterparty where the mass shooting happened was an unofficial one, held about nine miles away in Inglewood.

At the time of writing, there has been no arrest made related to the shootings. Authorities currently do not have any suspect description, per Billboard, or any information on the motive, but detectives are reportedly investigating the incident. LAPD also couldn't confirm if the mass shooting was gang-related.

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This is a developing story, and the investigation into the shooting related to the Hard Summer music festival is ongoing. Stay tuned for more news and updates.