Fallout Continues from Tragic Concert Festival in Houston
Last weekend’s tragic concert festival in Houston, TX headlined of course by founding artist Travis Scott continues to have more twists and turns when it comes to the news coming out of the fallout.
Today, Houston’s police chief reneged on a claim that one of the security personnel at the show had been injected by a needle, instead the security guard in question had just been hit in the head and knocked out.
So, needless to say, there’s still a lot of rumor and narratives floating around that may not necessarily be true. So much of the initial story was spread via social media by a lot of the attendees that night, so how much can be corroborated is hard to say.
What is confirmed as of now is that 8 people died, the youngest of which reportedly was just 14, and hundreds more were injured in a mixture of crowd surge, trampling, and other crowd related injuries during some of the chaos at the show. Videos online also showed barricades being ran through by hundreds of concertgoers bypassing security at the gate to enter the venue.
It’s a tough situation to try to sift through after the fact. Obviously, this is a senseless tragedy and there has to be some responsibility taken by the venue, security, performers like Scott who has a history of inciting violent and dangerous behavior at his shows. Already several lawsuits have been filed against the concert including artists like Travis Scott and Drake.
Now I’m not sure if Drake is really to blame a lot here, but I could understand the history of pretty dangerous stuff that happens at Travis Scott’s concerts that he could be held liable for some dangerous behavior by concertgoers and/or lack of reasonable preparation in terms of safety at the venue, knowing things can get wild at his shows.
But there’s responsibility to be laid at a lot of people’s feet. The venue, the promoter, the security hired for the event. A lot of prevention is in preparation, and according to some reports (btw absurd headline, but info is fair), the preparation for security at the event was pretty standard which probably seems a little light given some of Scott’s past performances. According to the Harris County Judge, there was “stronger fencing, more barricades, [and] additional space for crowd control,” but apparently it all wasn’t enough and as anyone who’s ever been in a moshing crowd will tell you barricades and strong fencing aren’t exactly your friend when a crowd is surging.
All this to say, the stories coming out of this concert are crazy. Kids apparently all around, passing out, getting trampled on, and the concert just keeps on going. Some fans shouting “we love you” to Travis while not far away EMTs and full on ambulance is just in the middle of the crowd taking dozens off the to hospital.
This interview is tough to listen to, but encapsulates a lot of the chaos happening first hand.
Another wild development today was supposedly mental health company BetterHelp is offering a one month free trial to those that attended the concert. Talk about reading the room. Leave it to a corporatized “mental health” company to completely not get it.
At the very least this is a terrible look for Travis Scott, and he will likely face some settlements in civil court around this with all the lawsuits floating around. Regardless, the families of the 8 deceased victims can’t get their sons, daughters, friends back after that night, and that simply should never happen. We all want kids going to concerts to have fun, so it takes some adult responsibility to make sure the environment is as safe as possible and under control. There’s too many stories about crazy terrible things that happen at concert festivals (s/o Woodstock ’99) so it’s a sad fact of reality that this isn’t the first and won’t be the last time something like this happens.
Just stay safe out there.