On September 29, two days before the fateful shooting took place, the Route 91 Harvest Festival began. It happened at the former Las Vegas Village, an open air venue located directly on the strip. The festival was a three-day event and was supposed to have performances by such massive country music acts as Jason Aldean, Big and Rich, Sam Hunt, and Kane Brown (per Las Vegas Review-Journal). On the night of the shooting, Hunt, Aldean, Jake Owen, and Maren Morris were scheduled to perform (per ConcertArchives).

According to People, Aldean had just taken the stage when Stephen Paddock began to open fire. Immediately, everything was thrown into chaos and the band evacuated the venue. In an Instagram post on the third anniversary of the shooting, Aldean shared a picture of the Route 91 memorial and called the incident “probably the worst night of our lives.” He said the anniversary would always be painful for him, but that he was thankful to still be alive. His wife, Brittany Aldean, also shared an Instagram post, where she recalled being just two months away from giving birth to her daughter at the time and wrote that the incident changed their lives forever.