Astroworld and Travis Scott
Hey, how are you? This is one of those things that we’re going to have to take seriously, so bear with me here.
I’ve been thinking a lot about the Astroworld situation from this past weekend, and I have a lot of thoughts on it. First off, eight people, mostly teenagers, woke up on Friday morning excited to see Travis Scott. They didn’t survive. Hundreds more were injured.
Rest In Peace to those who passed, and condolences to the families and friends of those people. I can’t even imagine the sadness they must feel. You send your child to a concert to see one of their favorite artists, you think they’re safe, and they don’t come home.
Secondly, how do you let this happen? That’s the first question everyone should be asking. Live Nation, Scott himself, anyone involved in the coordination of this event should have to face legal consequences here. If your event is understaffed, that’s on you.
Not to mention that the concert producer has violated OSHA protocols in the past. There were allegedly only TWO water stations in the entire park where the show was held, tens of thousands of people.
Let’s talk about Travis Scott for a second. It’s well-known that Scott likes to encourage his fans to get rowdy, even going so far as to get arrested at Lollapalooza in 2015 for inciting a riot by telling fans to storm the stage. He was arrested for the same thing in 2017.
He also indirectly caused the paralysis of a young man at an “overcrowded and out-of-control” show in 2017. The man was pushed off of a high balcony, while Scott was urging another young fan to jump off a lower balcony into the crowd below.
This is also purely witness testimony from me, but I worked at a merch table at a Travis Scott concert in 2018, at the Footprint Center, then called Talking Stick Resort Arena.
I worked in the main area outside of the pit seats, and remember seeing multiple people carried out on stretchers, unconscious. I remember thinking how odd it was, because I had been to and worked dozens of shows, and never seen anything like that before.
I didn’t think much of it back then, but now it’s hard not to think of those people.
When last Friday’s show sold out all the way back in April, Scott tweeted that they’re “still letting the wild ones in,” in reference to people sneaking in without a ticket. He deleted it Saturday morning, even before he posted a half-hearted response.
These actions are disgusting, unsafe, and awful. Because there were no major repercussions, Scott now has the deaths of eight people on his hands.
It’s gruesome, so read with caution, but if you aren’t aware of the situation from Friday night, this witness testimony gives you a good idea.
Scott seemingly knew there were issues in the crowd, as did a lot of the surrounding staff. Videos show Scott looking at an ambulance in the crowd, questioning what it is, and then continuing to perform. He’s spoken to in between songs by staff, and just continues going.
Shane Morris, allegedly Travis Scott’s former manager, says Scott is a “genuinely horrible person,” and has a history of lacking empathy in dangerous situations, including walking away while Morris was having a seizure in an LA studio.
(Morris goes on to make some other claims that I’m not sure are true, so be wary, but I thought something like that deserved inclusion here, if it does turn out to be true.)
As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve been to and worked at dozens of shows, including rap and punk shows where a mosh pit has opened up.Just because you have high-energy shows doesn’t mean people have to get seriously injured, or killed.
Punk shows get just as crazy, and concert attendees and even performers are vigilant and making sure nobody gets trampled or stays on the ground for too long.
Moshing is about letting your emotions out and enjoying music. Scott seems to think it’s about the danger itself, which is why he continually urges people to do incredibly dangerous things, both at concerts and in song lyrics.
The worst part of it all is that this didn’t have to happen. There are so many shows and festivals that go off without stuff like this happening, because the people behind it plan for these types of things.
I haven’t been able to get Friday night out of my head since I read up on it. My heart aches for these people, man.
I hope Scott and Live Nation end up accountable for this tragedy, but part of me knows that Scott will continue to host insane shows with no regard for the safety of his fans, and no repercussions afterwards. Hell, he’ll probably reference Friday’s events in a song or something.
Thanks for reading. Sorry this was so heavy, but I wanted to get it off my chest. I’ll talk to you again on Thursday, with something much better.
AUTHOR’S NOTE: A few hours after the release of this newsletter, Scott agreed to pay for the funerals of the victims of the Astroworld tragedy, as well as announcing a partnership with Betterhealth (which has its own history of controversy, but whatever) to give free therapy sessions to those affected by the tragedies.
Again, this could have all been avoided, but at least Scott did a bit more than the bare minimum here.