AstroWorld, a two-day festival headlined by Travis Scott in Houston, Texas quickly took a turn for the worst this year. The festival was canceled after day one when at least 10 people were killed and hundreds were injured. The concert now has been named one of the deadliest disasters at a concert in our country, according to New York Times.
Since the event, Travis Scott has been hit with $750 million dollars in claims over the tragedy. The lawsuits are accusing Scott and the festival of “gross negligence” for the chaos that occurred the night of November 5. The suits also list Live Nation, Drake, and Apple as partially responsible. One lawsuit is specifically from the family of a 9-year-old, Ezra Blount, who lost his life as a result of injuries at the concert.
Social media has also made it their job to hold Travis Scott accountable for his actions. Videos of him encouraging his fans to rage or even continuing to perform when people were pleading for help have surfaced. One nurse that attended the event spoke out about the event by calling it the most “madness” she has ever seen in her life.
As someone who has attended several festivals, including Rolling Loud, I understand how chaotic these events can get. Extreme fans go out of their way to make mosh pits, push their way to the front, and as Travis likes to say, “rage.”
I will never forget when my 5-foot-tall friend got caught in a mosh pit and literally had to fight for her life to get out. The night at Rolling Loud when Travis performed, my friend and I lost each other for almost 4 hours after all the chaos. Another thing I recall seeing is a lot of concert-goers passing out after watching them take hard drugs.
So who all is responsible for the tragedies that occurred that night? While Travis is wrong for not attempting to control the crowd, there are several others at fault. First, concert-goers should know not to behave so rowdy over an artist, who is a human being like the rest of us. The star-struck behavior I have witnessed at these concerts is unbelievable and very questionable. I came across a video on Twitter of thousands of people without tickets, bum-rushing security in order to get in. They are responsible as well, as they took up space at an already sold-out concert.
Travis Scott’s team should have also made it in initiative to cancel the performance when things escalated. The performer is not solely capable of shutting the entire set down. Where were his managers, executive team, producers, programmers, and technicians? Someone, besides him, definitely witnessed the madness of the crowd and was able to put an end to his set.
Lastly, there needs to be an age-requirement to these types of events. The amount of hard drugs and alcohol present at these festivals are crazy for a child to be exposed to. Standing her ground is even hard for my petite friend at these events, so I cannot imagine how it is for a young child. Hearing that 9 and 10-year-olds were killed and injured at the event broke my heart. However, it made me wonder, “Why were they allowed into the event?”.
Travis Scott has put out an apology via Instagram after the incidents. Drake, Kylie Jenner, and Kim Kardashian are just a few people closely tied to him who have also issued sincere well-wishes to those that were affected. All ticket holders were also issued a refund for the event, which was around $300-400.
The families of all those who lost their loved ones will never get them back. The people who watched these incidents happen may even suffer from PTSD after witnessing everything. I hope that they will receive some type of justice. I also wish that performers and production teams rethink their setups and regulations regarding future concerts.