Astroworld: What do we know, what can we learn?
More than 300 people were injured - and more than 8 and counting have been reported dead after the events of the third annual Astroworld festival. Travis Scott, the host of the festival, was performing on the night all of the chaos ensued, and was supposedly “unaware” of just how severe the situation had gotten as the night progressed, even being deemed a “mass casualty event” by Houston city officials.
So what exactly caused all this? An appalling amount of death is virtually unheard of in a concert setting. What changed?
Around 2 -3 p.m., floods of people began rushing past the VIP entrance gates. Multiple videos circulating around social media showed many of them almost racing with each other to get into the concert. At the actual checkpoint, the mob rushed, and there was minimal security and almost no effort put in to stop the influx of arrivals. Around 9:00 p.m., just as Scott was about to come on stage, the crowd rushed to get as close to the stage as possible, which would only create more calamity in the coming hours. With all of the attendees surging forward towards the stage to watch Scott perform, it caused the crowd to only squish tighter and tighter together. At this point, many people began to pass out, and in some places in the crowd began what attendees would call a “domino effect.” One person would pass out on another, and so on and so forth, until there was, essentially, a pile of bodies, conscious and unconscious. People were beginning to be killed by “crowd crush.”
When you have as many people packed at one time in such a small area as seen in Houston, people can start to die just by being in the crowd. Nearly every death was caused due to asphyxiation, a long and agonizing death. People were dying, even as they were still standing.
Around this time, many of the attendees were beginning to fear for their lives. Many social media videos circulating show many people trying to get the attention of Scott and others. Seanna Faith, one of the attendants at Astroworld, was seen in a video pleading with a cameraman for the event to stop the show, and was met only with dismissive gestures and profanities.
“There’s something f*****g dead in there! There’s someone dying,” Faith cried out at a cameraman for the event, whose only response was to shoo her and others away from trying to stop the chaos.
The true tragedy of the situation is in the simple fact that all of the events of Astroworld were easily avoidable. Many issues could be traced back to inadequate security and staffing for the event, and all in all not having a single ounce of competence from the Astroworld team or Scott himself.
While it's true that every concert has its troubles, deaths and injuries to this degree are unfortunately historic. And while not all of the blame can be placed on Scott, it is apparent that he was well aware that there was something serious going on, along with tweeting out: “NAW AND WE STILL SNEAKING THE WILD ONES IN. !!!!!”
Scott pointed out an unconscious body sometime towards the first part of the mayhem, and while he did alert EMTs to get the body to a safer place, it was essentially all he did for the night. If anything, he encouraged his crowd to be reckless and ignore any safety in the name of getting “hype.” This kind of energy is seemingly present with most of Scott’s concerts. In 2015, Scott was arrested for reckless conduct, when he told the crowd “Middle finger up to security right now!” In the same year, Scott encouraged the crowd to assault someone. What caused such an enraged comment? The person took his shoe.
“Get that mother*****r, get him! F*** him up, f*** him up!”
Many people online have been quick to point out other artists such as Kurt Cobain, Billie Eilish, Harry Styles and many others that have stopped their shows for far less than what happened at Astroworld. If anything, atrocities like these can prevent anything like it from happening again, so long as those in charge are willing to put in the work to make it happen.
