On Friday, Nov. 5, famous rapper Travis Scott held his annual Astroworld Music Festival in his hometown of Houston, Texas that became a difficult crowd to control. The music festival resulted in 10 deaths and over 300 injuries due to the crowd surge that lacked supervision among protocols.
The Houston Police Department prepared months in advance knowing how rowdy the crowd was two years before. They added a dozen more police officers, as well as hired private security by Live Nation.
Earlier that day, Houston Police Chief Troy Finner went into Scott’s trailer to express his concern for the energy in the crowd already built up. This same energy has been building up for months among 50,000 fans as live music is becoming accessible again after the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the event’s 56-page planning report, there was equipment set up including eight-foot fencing with scrim, concert bollards, and bike racks as well as security placed around the arena meant to maintain the crowd. Fans that attended the festival have been sharing their experience on social media. Many claimed the crowd surge became so intense that they had no movement in their bodies and people were being crushed.
After ending the event 30 minutes earlier than originally attended, Scott was arrested for inciting a riot. Fire Chief Samuel Peña claims they did not stop the concert sooner as it was the organizers of the show that did not decide to pause at any point.
Scott and his management team took to Instagram to post an apology. Scott also posted a video of himself expressing his sorrows for everything that happened at the Astroworld festival. Some fans felt Scott’s apology was not sincere and blamed him for not stopping the concert as people compared him to other artists who have stopped issues within the crowd.
Scott noticed one fan out the entire crowd during his set that was struggling in the front and had security come over to help. Scott did not have the authority to end his own show.
The Houston rapper is paying for all funeral costs of the Astroworld victims. Scott also is partnering with BetterHelp— a network of mental health professionals for any attendee from Astroworld Fest if they want to speak to someone about their trauma.
How do you feel about the festive;? Let us know your opinion by tweeting us, @VALLEYmag, on Twitter.
1 Comment