Astroworld and the responsibility of crowd safety

The tragedy at a Houston festival reminded some concertgoers of previous situations where performers stepped in to help members of the audience, writes Lucy Anna Gray

Travis Scott says that pyrotechnics and other paraphernalia onstage prevented him from being able to see what was unfolding (Amy Harris/Invision/AP)

Eight people died and more are still fighting for their lives after the tragedy at Astroworld, Travis Scott’s festival in Houston. Footage from the event show a crowd surge that left many attendees crushed and medical teams struggling to get to those in need.

Since the incident unfolded, social media has been awash with attendees sharing harrowing experiences from the concert. There has also been an uptick in people sharing older footage from other artists interrupting performances when they spotted signs of trouble. Billie Eilish calling out security at one of her concerts in September, interrupting her performance to ask: “Security, why aren’t you paying attention? Like, for real,” after a fan collapsed is one example. Adele stopping mid-performance when someone appeared to have fainted and not resuming until she had confirmation that they were being assisted is another. Even older footage resurfaced of Kurt Cobain pausing a Nirvana show to help a fan. While sharing such footage, people have been questioning whether Travis Scott might have been able to avert tragedy at Astroworld if he had intervened in a similar way instead of continuing to perform.

On Tuesday, Houston’s fire chief said Scott and the organisers of Astroworld should have stopped the show when they realised people were in danger. Samuel Pena told NBC’s Today show: “The artist, if he notices something that’s going on, he can certainly pause that performance, turn on the lights and say, ‘Hey, we’re not going to continue until this thing is resolved.’”

However, Houston mayor Sylvester Turner suggested this may not have been the best course of action at the time, saying: “You got thousands and thousands that are crammed in, and they don’t know what’s happening. So if you just stop something abruptly, then you don’t want to make the situation worse. So it’s a sensitive situation.”

Astroworld will likely be a pivotal event in crowd safety, with the question of where responsibility lies being carefully examined. With numerous organisers involved in the running of an event of this scale, just how much of this lies on the performer’s shoulders is unclear, and unclearer still is whether Scott could have possibly seen or comprehended what was happening in front of him. For his part, he says that pyrotechnics and other paraphernalia onstage prevented him from being able to see what was unfolding.

The ongoing investigation will likely uncover more answers as to how this was able to happen. But this tragedy has shown that there is a clear appreciation for artists taking control of their events and calling out danger when they see it.

Yours,

Lucy Anna Gray

US audience editor