LOS ANGELES – Travis Scott’s high-energy performances are known for their chaotic and fun-filled shows, encouraging concertgoers to participate in a raucous nature. Mosh pits, crowd surfing and stage diving.
Welcome to Scott’s Astroworld Festival – where concertgoers can be their rebellious selves.
Sadly Grammy-Nominated Rappers Energetic show was fatal this time At least eight people – between the ages of 14 and 27 – died as a crowd gathered at their concert in Houston on Friday evening. A large group of 50,000 in attendance were pushed towards the stage at NRG Park as a timer to begin the performance before the chaotic scene ignited.
People in the crowd reported a lot of pushing and shoving during Scott’s performance up to the set – which is normal on his show. He often encouraged fans to bypass security and rush to the stage, but none of those previous situations resulted in fatalities.
“Travis Scott’s whole aesthetic is about rebellion,” said Trent Clark, editor-in-chief of HipHopDX, who has attended many of his performances. “There’s a lot of fury in the show. With the death of punk rock, hip-hop has really adopted and modeled the new generation of Mosh Pitt. It’s not unusual to see a lot of crowds and furious or outright wild behavior on a Travis Scott show. “
Scott is an eight-time Grammy-nominated rapper who is one of music’s biggest young stars. The Houston-born musician founded his festival in 2018 on the heels of his chart-topping album “Astroworld,” which was led by the infectious song “Sico Mode.” She also has a 3-year-old daughter with Kylie Jenner, who announced in September that she is pregnant with their second child.
“Travis Scott is famous in the hip-hop community for going beyond his high-energy performances, where he really tries to wow the crowd,” said Rolling Stone editor-in-chief, Noah Schachtman. “It makes for some really fun shows and made for some scary events.”
In a tweet posted on Saturday, Scott said he was “absolutely devastated by what happened last night.” He pledged to work “together with the Houston community to heal and support families in need.”
No matter where the investigation ultimately leads, tragedies like the Astroworld Festival are long overdue. In 1979, 11 people died in a scuffle for entering The Who’s concert in Cincinnati, Ohio. At a football stadium in England, a human crush in 1989 resulted in nearly 100 deaths. In 2015, based on an Associated Press count of media reports and officials’ comments, the collision of two mobs on the Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia resulted in more than 2,400 deaths.
But after Scott got in trouble for the last two shows, Schachtman thinks the rapper will get a “tough second look.”
In 2017, Scott was arrested after he encouraged fans to bypass security and participate on stage, injuring a security guard, a police officer and several others during a concert in Arkansas . In a separate incident, after pleading guilty to charges of reckless conduct stemming from a 2015 incident at the Lollapalooza music festival in Chicago, he was sentenced to one year under court supervision.
At the time, Chicago officials said Scott encouraged fans to vault security barricades. However, no one was injured.
“In terms of energy, he wants the energy he’s giving out on stage, almost in defiance, from the audience,” said Julian Kimble, who performed a concert at Scott’s 2018 Astroworld performance for The Washington Post. Wrote review. He called the rapper one of the most electrifying artists he had ever seen.
“I’ve seen him tell people, ‘Don’t listen to security. Forget security. It’s for all of you. It’s for the fans,'” he continued. “In regards to last night, this one Examples of how things can go wrong. There is a lot of negligence going on in the board. I don’t think anyone is a bad guy or a criminal. This is a massive structural failure with what happened.”
Schachtman said he hopes the tragedy will help change Scott’s approach to his show. He enjoys the rapper’s performance but wants a safe environment where people can still have fun – especially for those eager to get some enjoyment at live shows during the pandemic.
“I expect them to step up measures to ensure that concertgoers can have a great time, but do so without doing so,” said Schachtman, who grew up on New York’s hardcore punk rock music. He said he’s no stranger to mosh pits, but he adds that “there’s a big difference between a mosh pit, even a giant pit, and a life-threatening situation.”
Scott is a scheduled headliner for the Day en Vegas Festival next weekend. But any demonstration related to Scott may come under some scrutiny for crowd control measures and other safety concerns.
“Concert promoters pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for security, both private and public (events),” Schachtman said. “It has to be deployed properly. Otherwise, we’re going to see another of these incidents.”