8 people have been confirmed dead after a massive group of people tried to push to the front to get a better view of Travis Scott performing at the Astroworld Festival in Houston, Texas yesterday. And on top of that, another 23 people that were injured were hospitalised, and another 300+ people were treated for minor injuries. One of the injured was just 10 years old. Multiple of the casualties who attended the festival yesterday suffered heart attacks, which were possibly induced by stress caused by what happened.

 

There were multiple videos that surfaced on Twitter of the event - including paramedics attempting to resuscitate a patient, a massive crowd of people creating a stampede to get into the venue, and even a video of someone begging Travis to stop the concert, in which he refuses to.

 

Kylie Jenner, who is the girlfriend of Travis Scott, was severely criticised by people across all social media platforms for sharing an Instagram story of the festival in which you could clearly see an ambulance going through the crowd to treat a patient, or patients. Some people even called Instagram to ban her from the site.

 

After the incident, people across all social media platforms want Travis Scott and his team held responsible and face serious repercussions for what happened. Some want them charged with manslaughter, and sent to prison for a long time.

Awful disaster :(

 

Travis has responsed:

 

@1457018948109705217

 

I am a huge fan of Travis and his music. If we were to point a finger and blame, it would primarily go to the security and venue team who saw early signs of chaos even as the doors opened. To blame Travis is perhaps the easy option but how much power does he have over Matters that concern security etc.

 

However the bit that doesn't sit right with me is if Travis was made aware of the casualties while on stage, he could've paused the show and refused to continue until people were ok. Although people are shown screaming at him for this, who knows what he was aware of while being caught in the moment and ecstasy of performing to such a huge crowd.

 

A tough one.

 

Condolences to the lives lost, it's devastating.

https://mobile.twitter.com/dramaforthegirl/...980583280746505

 

Beware: Can be shocking to some

 

 

I think judging by this video, he was definetely aware that something was happening. But instead of doing something, he continued the show and allowed possible more casualties to happen. Especially after the crowd told him to stop the show, a girl all but screamed in a cameraman's face to stop the show. He's not directly responsible, but indirectly he deffo is

 

The whole team ofcourse is responsible. The security was very bad (a stampede to enter the festival happened earlier in the day, which showed the security was not up to standards), there was no AED or whatever, the medics were incapable of CPR. It's all a big mess

The more I see/read about this the worse it gets. I don’t think Travis is so responsible directly for the lack of proper medical staff available at the festival as I’m assuming there was some form of professional corporate entity involved in handling that kind of detail but to keep going on when he can see and is being screamed at that shit is going wrong is totally unacceptable and wrong. Like you stop and use your literal platform and voice to help direct the help or at least get the crowd to part.

Was Kylie Jenner really that stupid to put photos of the ambulance?

 

Absolute tragedy this.

They’ve confirmed the ages of 7 of the 8 deceased: 14, 16, 21, 21, 23, 23 and 27

My hearts go out to all the victims, such an awful tragedy. Honestly surprised something like this has not happened sooner though at a festival even though they have made them safer. It’s so easy to happen, I’m honestly shocked nobody died at Leeds Fest 2009 during The Prodigy set. Genuinely the same stories I’m reading tonight are what I experienced that set. Absolutely mad.

 

Sounds like the security was really lax here. Not sure you can blame Travis Scott seeing as he would have no idea at the time the true extent of what was happening. The fault lies with the people responsible for the safety, which ultimately is the festival organisers.

What a nightmare! So tragic

 

That festival was totally overcrowded and with really poor security. There are videos of stampedes as early as 2pm when the gates opened and people in the crowd trying to get the attention of staff and cameramen to stop the show and they totally ignore them.

 

Travis is definitely responsible as the festival's founder, and promoting and inciting this type of rage culture behavior. The amount of videos doing the rounds of what happened is horrifying. He continued to perform while watching a clearly unconscious girl. A total shit show. I wonder if these families will ever get justice for what happened

@1457132305877700610

@1456704812456845316

@1457014802254082060

@1456890536330158083

And this is why I can and do lay blame on Travis: https://www.buzzfeed.com/alexalisitza/adele...xo2aZZugQ1JpXpg

 

 

He could have stopped, he had the vantage point to allow medics to reach there faster and he had the ability to stop and calm the shoving crowd that he was still encouraging which was actively making things worse.

And this is why I can and do lay blame on Travis: https://www.buzzfeed.com/alexalisitza/adele...xo2aZZugQ1JpXpg

He could have stopped, he had the vantage point to allow medics to reach there faster and he had the ability to stop and calm the shoving crowd that he was still encouraging which was actively making things worse.

 

Not saying that Travis doesn't have some responsibility, but the point BuzzFeed and Twitter are making is bloody ridiculous. You don't see mosh pits at an Adele concert, this stuff happens all the time, just thankfully, nobody dies. Festivals are especially the worst as people are pissed and drigged up all day, so by the time the sub headliners/headliners come on, it's hunting season/

When in doubt - blame drugs

When in doubt - blame drugs

 

I'm not blaming the drugs or the alcohol, that's part of festival culture. People are pissed and drugged up all the time, if there isn't the security or right safety mechanisms in place then things fall apart. Festivals can be death traps, I've had my own terrible crushing experiences (although one is far worse than anything I've ever experienced). Part of Travis' USP is the hyped up crowd, mosh pits are common place at rap/ trap-rap these days. Ultimately sounds like whoever designed the stage and was in charge of crowd flow is ultimately responsible for what happened. Safety at festivals have dramatically improved, but they really can be death traps down to the sheer volume of people.

I got caught in a a badly-organised hippie festival exit through a small area of a huge crowd, and it's scary - I pushed back and swore at everyone behind me trying to force their way through and causing it but if it's started further back than that that doesn't work. Crowds always always always become lethal when badly organised. Scott is partly to blame. He played for 40 minutes after the first incident and seemed to enjoy the attention. he insisted on no other stages being open during his ego-moment which caused the rush, reportedly.

 

When crushing happens the first thing you do is say "If you don't stop I will leave the stage". And you stop playing until the situation is sorted. This is basic H&S crowd management. Some people are going to go to prison. Scott at the least may be subjected to claims against him, the organisers def will.

@1456890536330158083

This came up on my feed yesterday and made me do a 180 on it all in all honesty. The videos of him performing and watching bodies being carried out the way they were too.... as well as an ambulance right in the middle of the audience.

 

So sad and my heart goes out to the families that have lost their loved ones and to those who were injured.

This just in, 22-year-ols Bharti Shahani has become the ninth person to die.

The more I see/read about this the worse it gets. I don’t think Travis is so responsible directly for the lack of proper medical staff available at the festival as I’m assuming there was some form of professional corporate entity involved in handling that kind of detail but to keep going on when he can see and is being screamed at that shit is going wrong is totally unacceptable and wrong. Like you stop and use your literal platform and voice to help direct the help or at least get the crowd to part.

 

It's easy to criticise after the fact here, had the show been stopped you could have been looking at riots and far more deaths from a heavily intoxicated and drugged up crowd. I would never want to be the event managers who had to make those calls, but they at least deserve the chance to explain why they did what they did. At least in the UK, event organisers can normally cut music off if there's a safety issue regardless of what the performers do, so I'd imagine it was a case of them trying to decide if more issues were going to happen if they did that.

 

A stampede to get in does seem like a massive security failure though - and they could have cut the show off after that.

It's very easy to criticise based on the fact that concerts go on throughout the world every day and none of them have audiences that are "drugged up" potential rioters and they manage to avoid having mass deaths. So either Scott fans are rabidly dangerous and would riot at the drop of a hat - and so need locking up for causing deaths as a result of that and their behaviour - or else Scott could have stopped the whole gig and saved lives and just put up with grumbling crowds demanding the money back and the management would have had to accept that for being effing useless money-grabbers not putting on enough basic H&S features. I was watching live outdoor Winter Pride in Gran Canaria last night on Youtube - plenty of safety features very visible and ambulances and medical staff on the scene throughout.

 

No excuses.

 

 

From the Wikipedia article:

At 9:27 p.m., Scott hunched over after a song and paused. While the crowd chanted "Travis!" Scott straightened up and walked to the right side of the arena and pointed offstage asking for the lights, then telling the crowd to "make some noise for my boy right there hanging in the tree" for a better view while closest to the stage on the other side people waved at the stage shouting, "medic!". Scott then told everyone to put their middle fingers up in the sky "because they are ready to rage" and began his next song.[40][35][1]

 

At 9:30 p.m. Scott noticed an ambulance in the crowd, asking the audience to raise their middle fingers if they were ok, then two hands in the sky, and upon approval from much of the ground, said "You all know what you came to do, Chase B, let's go", continuing the concert with his song "Upper Echelon", telling the crowd that he wanted to hear the ground shake.

 

WTF?!

What an irresponsible moron, families should sue him and account him responsible for those deaths

He didn't have to cancel the gig (which rightly would have caused a riot) but could have paused for 3 minutes to see what was going on/solve the situation