Astroworld: out of this world or out of control?

One of Travis Scott’s biggest and best music performances ended up making history-for being one of the worst disasters at a concert of all time. So what even happened? How did all this controversy arise and why?

Astroworld is a massive music festival held in Houston Texas. Soon after Travis Scott’s 2018 album dropped, an old amusement park venue became a hit. The Astroworld festival is held on the former site of Six Flags Astroworld, with plenty of rides and food its the perfect attraction for people of all ages.

The Astroworld festival started at 3 pm Friday November 5th and was scheduled to go on and continue until Sunday November 7th at 12 am. There were a set number of people who were allowed to purchase tickets for this huge festival.  All 50,000 of the tickets were sold out in 30 minutes, the tickets were sold for $350 per person but the people were eager to go “`rage” with their favorite hometown artist so it was a small price to pay for the experience of a lifetime.  

During Mr. Scotts past performances there have been issues that have gone on during the festival, people were trampled and hospitalized during the festival in 2018 but nothing like what went on this year. 

From the moment all the madness started, people wanted out. Many individuals said as soon as Mr. Scott got on stage something felt off. With everyone jumping there was so little space to breathe that many people began panicking and screaming for help but they could not be heard. 

As hundreds pushed onwards past the barricades to get into the festival just as many people pushed closer to see Mr. Scott perform, countless were dragged down with the crowd. Once you are on the ground it is almost impossible to stand back up, many say. 

Some blame this tragedy on Mr. Scott but others say it was the staff working the event. Whether there was enough staff hired to even keep a couple thousand people from getting into trouble was questionable, after seeing the crowd surge you can obviously see how understaffed they truly were. It seemed as though the security was just watching all of the chaos and brushing it off. 

According to NPR newsletter the chief of police in Houston,Troy Finner lets out a statement, he says, ¨I expressed my concerns regarding public safety¨ he continues on to say ¨in my 31 years of law enforcement experience I have never seen a time with more challenges facing citizens of all ages, to include a global pandemic and social tension throughout the nation.” 

After all of the madness ended, 9 victims ages 14-27 have been pronounced dead. Mr. Scott spoke out and gave a formal apology which many criticized him for. Many called it insensitive and said he needs to pay for all of the funerals and assure all of his fans it will never happen again. Families have already begun to file lawsuits against Scott and other festival organizers.Hopefully he learns from this experience not to encourage his young impressionable fans into becoming reckless and causing innocent lives to be cut short.