5 minute read
Violence at Concerts
The Astroworld catastrophe stunned the country and the music industry with it’s fatal outcome. Stemming from this event: an uprising of questions from the public asking how this could occur, especially at an event as well-known as Travis Scott’s Astroworld?
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WORDS by ELLI WESTMACOTT ART by CLAIRE TOLLES
The years of adolescence are supposed to be the exciting and experimental moments of life. The ones in which fear shouldn’t restrain us from living life to the fullest. Imagine a teenage boy preparing to go to one of the most thrilling festivals in America.
He’s overjoyed and nervous with anticipation of the lively moments to come. Not worried about the safety of his body and life. Instead of enjoying the music and enticing atmosphere Astroworld is supposed to embody, he finds himself encapsulated in the crowd with no plausible way of escaping asphyxiation.
In November, this anxiety-inducing situation became a reality for fourteen-year-old John Hilgert and many of the 50,000 other people who attended the Astroworld Festival in Houston, Texas.
On Nov. 5, Travis Scott’s Astroworld Festival took a turn for the worse when fans rushed the stage as Scott began his per- formance.
This destructive crowd surge resulted in the deaths of 10 people between 10 and 30 years old and injured hundreds more. In his article on Astroworld, Matt Sedensky talks to Scott’s fans and those who attended the event to get a perspective on the high anxiety which overcame the crowd.
The public’s laid-back approach to concert-going is now gone, lost like the lives swallowed by the chaos of Astroworld’s crowd.
After this recent tragedy, questions arose asking how an occurrence as deadly as this could result from a crowd surge?
Firstly, to comprehend the catastrophic Astroworld events, it is essential to acknowledge the context.
Travis Scott based his Astroworld franchise at Six Flags amusement park, which used to be located in Houston. 2021’s Astroworld was not the first to end in violence; in 2019, three people were hospitalized with injuries from a minor stampede when the doors to the festival first opened.
Astroworld revolves around Travis Scott and his craft, though a lot of the hype around this festival also stems from the famous guest artists that Scott brings. The festival’s postponement, due to COVID-19, whipped
“We’re all one. You’re moving with the crowd. The crowd’s like water. It’s like an ocean.” - Steven Gutierrez
Scott’s fanbase into a frenzy of anticipation.
For many of the Travis Scott fans, this crowd surge was a way of expressing devotion and pent-up passion built up over the time-delayed.
Secondly, the organization that produced this festival, Live Nation, was accused of being understaffed and unorganized.
Many are suing Live Nation for not providing enough security for the event and for not having enough medical resources at hand for those who were comatose or undergoing cardiac arrest.
Lastly, when many human beings are enclosed in an extremely tight space, the horde begins to act as one, and the mob mentality takes over.
In her NPR podcast episode, Audie Cornish invites a large number of people, some witnesses, and some event managers from Live Nation.
Crowd safety specialist Keith Still spoke on the show about the science behind this traumatic event. “So initially, you will see [the] crowd sway, and at that point, you should be trying to unwind the crowd density. However, once you get the crowd surge, you can then result in what’s called a progressive crowd collapse,” Still said. Uproarious fast-paced concerts packed with people increase the risk of crowds surge.”
Astroworld isn’t the first concert to end in tragedy. Unfortunately, crowd brutality occurs every so often. In her NPR article, “Astroworld Festival, Rachel Treisman writes that the Astroworld event calls to mind other rare but traumatic incidents at concerts and festivals throughout the last half-century.
One of the more memorable concerts that went astray involved the Seattle-based rock band Pearl Jam in 2000.
The event, located at the Roskilde Festival in Denmark, led to a populous mosh pit held during the live music, leaving nine dead.
Most of the lives lost resulted
from asphyxiation or trampling, but when lead singer Eddie Vetter was informed of the critical state of the crowd, the show was instantly halted, and the band did what they could to get the crowd to retreat. Travis Scott did stop the show many times, but the miscommunication that traveled between Scott, producers, and security allowed the concert to go on.
For around 30 more arduous minutes, people were crowd surfed to paramedics and trampled to the point of death.
Although fingers are pointed at the organizers, one must address the nature of the audience.
While some concert-goers underwent cardiac arrest and asphyxiation, others pushed towards the stage and chanted in awe of the performance, which brings up another question: What do these deadly crowd surges say about human nature and the essence of concert culture?
Some of the differences in preoccupation within the crowd result from diversity where the crowd surge was hitting. However, people enjoyed themselves for a good 30 minutes while limp bodies were dragged through the crowd.
Some attribute the muddle of Astroworld to the extremity of rap culture, and others criticize the people encouraging the show during the deaths nearby. The music lived on, while seven of the lost ten lives faltered.
This fact is inconceivable, for most people assume that, in a situation that dire, one could rely on others.
Concerts and thrilling festivals like Astroworld and Roskilde are events where people can let go; they are freeing and riveting and safe places for fans to witness the emotional empowerment of live music. They’re not supposed to be events where parents fear their children will not return.
Before the music began, people pressed towards the stage, suffocating those near the front.
The waves of people surging the stage started before the music, so the crowd’s overly-passionate, almost violent nature was brewing from the beginning.
