As more and more details start to come out about the tragedy that occured at the Astroworld music festival, questions need to be raised as to what security measures were in place and the state of ethics of our society.
The Astroworld festival put on by rapper Travis Scott on Nov. 5 has already claimed nine lives with many more injured. The festival opened at 9 a.m. and by the time Scott took the stage at 9 p.m., 260 people had already been treated by the Houston Police Department due to what police described as “dangerous crowd conditions.”
According to authorities, things only got worse after Scott took the stage. Multiple reports were filed of unconscious people in the crowd with some needing CPR. Eventually, not even an hour into Scott’s performance, a Level One Mass Casualty Incident (MCI) was reported by authorities. Between the hours of 10 p.m. to around midnight, 17 people were reportedly taken to hospitals by ambulance, six of which were in cardiac arrest.
Scott’s lawyer told ABC’s “Good Morning America” that Scott was unaware of the MCI as his performance continued. This is where the lines of this story start to blur. Many people believe that Scott did know about what was happening in the crowds and still chose to perform, others believe the opposite in that there was no way Scott could have known.
Personally, I believe that thee was no way for Scott to know the conditions of the crowd and during his performance. Mid-set he may have been able to see that the crowds were getting rough but as a performer, his job is not to stand up there and survey the crowd for incidents. His job is to perform.
Yes, there have been accounts of musicians stopping their sets as they see something happening in a crowd. However, at a music festival, during a very extravagant performance, at night, the crowds are going to be massive, there will be pushing and shoving but if Scott was to stand up there and scope out the crowd instead of giving the fans that came to see him the show he believes they deserve, not only would that be uncomfortable for the crowd, it would feel like a strange, off-putting form of detention. So no, I do not think Scott is at fault for not seeing what was happening in the crowds at the time of his performance, what I do believe he is responsible for is what took place in the 12 hours before he went on stage.
As I mentioned earlier, there were multiple accounts of injuries and people taken to hospitals because of the dangerous conditions. This is what Scott should have been aware of and, as the organizer of the festival, done something about it. What that thing should have been, I am not sure, what I do know is that it was very obvious things were taking a turn for the worse long before Scott took the stage with no signs of anything resolving.
Scott is not the only one at fault here. Society as a whole has failed in this situation. It is tragic that as a population we have stooped to the level of feeling the need to charge merchandise booths, bust down barriers and trample over others, just to get a glimpse of a celebrity and the ability to attempt to impress others with stories that will become old news the very next day. Every new death that is announced to have been a result of the Astroworld music festival should be a slap in the face for humanity.
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