The weekend was perfect for an escape. It was Las Vegas, the poster city for getting away, and a dazzling lineup of entertainment beckoned, a three-day country music festival known as Route 91.

For the devoted, there was no other place to be last weekend, and they came from all over. They flew in from Toronto and Tennessee. They drove from New Mexico and California. Some had talked about the trip for months, counting down to it on their Facebook pages and gloating to friends about their plans.

In the final hours of the festival late Sunday night, the thousands who had journeyed to the Las Vegas stage suddenly found themselves under fire — a weekend retreat turned into a trap. At least 58 people on the festival grounds were killed.

The victims were co-workers who did not know one another well, but had bonded over their love of country music. They were teachers, city employees, an off-duty police officer. They were childhood friends who had reunited for the concert and a mother of two who wanted to take a romantic weekend trip with her husband, leaving the children behind with their grandparents.

One woman who was killed, Michelle Vo of the Los Angeles area, had recently ended a relationship and moved into her own apartment, reaching for independence, a friend said. She had taken up paddle boarding and golf; the weekend in Las Vegas was spent meeting new friends.

“She was just starting her life,” said a close friend, Casey Lubin, 32, a banker. “That’s why I don’t understand how this could happen.”

For some, the weekend in Las Vegas was both ritual and reward. Adrian Murfitt, a 35-year-old from Anchorage, had just spent a grueling summer working as a commercial fisherman. He had fond memories of attending the Route 91 festival last year, so he booked another trip to Las Vegas to congratulate himself for a summer’s work well done.

“He had such a great time when he went before, and he wanted to treat himself for a successful fishing season,” said his sister, Shannon Gothard.

For one couple, the Route 91 festival was a way of making amends. Chris Muniz of Gallup, N.M., forgot his wedding anniversary last year and decided to make it up to his wife, Lisa Romero-Muniz, with a road trip to Las Vegas. She was overjoyed, taking Friday and Monday off work for the long weekend, said Rosie Fernandez, her friend and supervisor at the high school where they worked.

“She was beyond excited,” Ms. Fernandez said. “For her husband to remember her anniversary and do all of that, this was a big thing for her.”