On Nov. 6, 2021, at least ten people were killed during a Travis Scott concert due to the overpacked, wild and sometimes violent crowd. Over 50,000 people were crowded around his stage during Scott’s personally created music festival, “Astroworld”.
Concert-goers were trampled to death in the midst of a sudden surge to the stage, and due to the packed crowd and loud atmosphere, it took paramedics forty minutes to reach the people in the audience. Lives were lost in a completely preventable situation.
Security has declined to comment, and at this present moment, what caused the sudden surge to occur is unknown. However, the violent and careless nature of the concert could have arisen because it has been encouraged by the artist in the past.
Travis Scott wants the energy for his shows to be like a WWE match. Scott was caught, on film yelling, “I want to see some rages. Who wants to rage?”. While he had no desire for people in his audience to die, he created an atmosphere that inevitably was going to lead to a situation like this.
Those caught up in the ocean of people moshing and raging, or even just watching, were helpless, unable to even move their arms. The intensity and density of the crowd made it difficult for security and the paramedics to reach those who needed help.
The energy at Travis Scott’s concert was not undesirable- for many, there is something about being caught up in a wave of energy and intensity. However, further safety precautions must be made if we want this mosh style of the concert to be sustainable. Avenues must remain open that are accessible to paramedics without having eager concertgoers invading them.
The fire and police departments of Houston, Texas, where Astroworld took place, did not get involved with the situation; I believe that was the wrong decision. The next time a concert inevitably gets too intense, the police should have the right to deescalate the situation. It may be taken poorly by the concertgoers, but a loss of life is much more severe than being a ‘vibe killer’.
Travis Scott cultivated a deadly environment in his audience, but the safety precautions he thought were functioning simply were not effective enough.
