Concerts and music festivals have been a defining feature of culture and experience across the world for many years. These festivals, and often times individual artists, bring in thousands of attendees for each event. Even though concerts at full capacity have been occurring for several years, it appears that they have only gotten more dangerous as the years have gone on.
On November 5th, 2021, Travis Scott performed at his Astroworld Festival in Houston, Texas. The 50,000-person crowd surged the stage at the start of his set resulting in eight deaths and hundreds more people injured. The youngest fan to die at this concert was only fourteen years old. Travis continued to play for 37 minutes after the event was determined a mass casualty event. Instances where people in the crowd were having resuscitate other festivalgoers occurred throughout the different sections and mosh pits. Fans also were vocalizing the need to stop the show and help those that were injured while Travis Scott continued his set.
While there was an instance in the show where he did stop performing to help someone that had passed out, he continued his set after the audience member was pulled out of the crowd.
Overtime, it appears that these concerts and festivals have only become more dangerous. When looking at comparisons between The Woodstock music festival and Travis Scotts Astroworld Festival 500,000 people attended Woodstock whereas only 50,000 people attended Astroworld. However, there were only two reported deaths at Woodstock from drug overdoes and, at this time, eight people have died and hundreds more were injured at Astroworld from the crowd surging the stage.
Injuries and deaths at concerts due to unsafe and borderline animalistic behaviors have only increased as time has progressed. Travis Scott is not the only artist that has dealt with the consequences of what has occurred at his concerts. Tyler, the Creator was previously arrested for inciting a riot at one of his concerts in 2014 and looking back several years in the past, Alan Freed was also charged with inciting a riot in 1958.
While illegal activities have taken place at music festivals for several years, including drug and alcohol use, these activities have only increased and have become more malicious. Several instances where artists have had to stop shows due to safety reasons have occurred over the last few years. These concerts have included Billie Eilish at the Governor’s Ball, ASAP Rocky, Post Malone, and more. Instances where artists have had to stop shows due to dangers in the crowd has only grown as time has progressed. This leads us to question if this display of musical art is pushing the bounds of public safety.
