At least 10 are dead and hundreds are injured due to a crowd surge toward the front of the stage at Travis Scott’s Astroworld Festival in Houston. Since the event, which occurred on Nov. 5, 177 lawsuits have been filed.  

Hype for Astroworld started back in May when more than 50,000 Astroworld tickets quickly sold out. On top of the already packed crowd, videos from the event show mobs of people successfully pushing through gates at security. The event was so packed that people had no room to step. Eager fans began to push from the back of the crowd attempting to reach the front of the stage, resulting in ten being killed as the night progressed.  

Festival organizers, stage members, and Travis Scott are all to blame for this tragedy. First, the setup of the festival grounds made no sense. The concert venue was outdoors but completely fenced in, leaving no room for people toward the front to get out. There was also a lack of signage, exits, and clear paths for security and medics to get through. Videos from Astroworld have since been released showing large amounts of people from the crowd chanting “stop the show.” Yet, as all of this occurs at once, Scott continues to sing amidst death while staff members on stage make no contributions to help.  

Travis Scott had tweeted before the concert, “NAW AND WE STILL SNEAKING THE WILD ONES IN. !!!!!” I have no problem with performers hyping up a show through social media but considering the event was already at max capacity combined with other factors like the venue, this was too much. It is unacceptable that he knowingly performed at over capacity without routinely checking up on the crowd and supervisors.  

Festival organizers should have done more research before planning this event. This is surely not the first time a concert or festival has gone terribly wrong. HBO just recently released a documentary about Woodstock ‘99, a music festival where several died and 700 were treated for dehydration or heat exhaustion. It baffles me that with the knowledge and technology we have today, innocent music listeners are still being killed on behalf of lazy event management.  

The tragedy at Astroworld along with many others shouldn’t have to happen for event organizers to understand the potential dangers behind concerts. These don’t have to keep occurring every decade for people to learn from their mistakes. Going forward, everyone needs to never forget to pay attention.