Humak students blog text on an emergent topic of the safety of festival productions
The case study delivered by one of the, Humak student of the MA in Cultural management – Vilma Lumio, is the story with recommendations, very informative and powerful material… and several details seen from the event producer perspective that can be a very good lesson to cultural events managers.
“Festivals are a great way to unplug, release tension from our stressful everyday life. If we want to continue organizing events in the future as well, we need to establish the best practices for keeping all attendees safe. Nobody should die from attending to a festival. This mass casualty will be an example of what could happen again, if proper measurements and actions are not taken when organizing an event. This cannot be forgotten, and the learnings from it need to be returned to the industry”.
The Astroworld tragedy – Sustainable event planning after a mass casualty incident
by Vilma Lumio
The text was prepared in connection with the COSM 2 (Cultural Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Management) course organised by Humak University of Applied Sciences.
An unexpected crowd surge at Astroworld, a music festival organized by Travis Scott in Houston, Texas, left ten people dead and several hundreds injured in November 2021. The investigation revealed multiple failures by festival organizers and security personnel in providing sufficient resources and planning for the possibility of a dangerous crowd surge. The question of who should ultimately be held accountable remains unresolved, as festival organizers, performers, and local police pass around the blame, while the number of lawsuits from victims’ families and affected audience members is increasing. How could the event industry prevent such casualties happening in the future?
What went wrong?
Since the incident, there has been a lot of blame-shifting and all involved parties are denying their responsibility for the events. It is not possible to blame one singular entity of the whole tragedy since many mistakes were made prior to and during the festival. When planning the event, the organizers made several crucial mistakes. The safety plan lacked instructions and guidelines for scenarios which were familiar from some of Scott’s previous events. As a result, the event organizers, security personnel, artists and paramedics were not fully aware of how to proceed in case of a crowd crush or breach at the gates in this location. Nor was it clear who would be responsible for stopping the show. Issues with communication, which were predicted beforehand, made it impossible to make sudden decisions during the incident. There was no mutual channel for all security personnel to communicate with each other and share urgent and crucial information from different locations of the festival.
The festival area contained only two stages, and the main stage was reserved for Scott’s performance. The layout of the crowd area was not designed to fit all festivalgoers at once, and there were no emergency exit paths. What’s more, corridors between the crowd segments were not wide enough and were filled with electronic equipment like streamers’ cameras. The festival area lacked signage and proper lighting, making it harder for audience members to leave, and for security personnel to find people in need. In addition to issues with the venue, reserved security and medical resources were not sufficient for the size of the event and the nature of such performances. This was known beforehand, but action was taken too late.
Scott’s audiences have a history with reckless behavior. Several past reports demonstrate that when they are selfishly trying to get into the festival area or secure a good spot for themselves, attendees often forget to take others into consideration. Major safety issues arise when a mass of people fills a small area without being considerate towards people around them. Ideally, festivals should be a safe space for everybody to relax and enjoy the atmosphere together. Additionally, artists should encourage people to take care of each other instead of pushing them to break the rules and resist security. That Travis Scott played a part in this tragedy is hard to deny. His provocative behaviour encouraged people to push closer to the stage and block paramedics from reaching the ones in need. Scott also continued his performance after he was aware of someone passing out in the crowd and saw people climbing trees and light fixtures. It is hard to say if this was intentional, but the artist should be more aware of crowd control and spotting possible dangers while performing. Scott should have known when to stop the show, and the message regarding the occurring events should have been communicated to him as soon as things started to escalate.
Pixabay.com.
How can this be avoided in the future?
If we want to continue the organization of festivals in the future, the Astroworld tragedy needs to be taken as a hard lesson. Unfortunately, the court documents are often sealed, and the information of what went wrong won’t be shared with the industry. Learning and improvement cannot happen without knowledge, but there are things we already know and can consider when planning future events in a sustainable manner. While none of the involved parties caused this incident on purpose, being more prepared could have prevented it from happening. Finding someone to blame is often prioritized, but in this case, it would be more important to work together and identify exactly what transpired and how we can prevent similar issues from occurring again.
It is easy to blame Scott from the incident since he is the face of the festival and was performing during the casualty. His carelessness affected the result, but his goal was to organize a great performance and experience for his fans. Scott, however, should consider his behaviour on the stage in his future concerts. We have recently seen other artists stopping their shows to make sure their audience is safe, for example Billie Eilish in February and Adele in July 2022, and outcomes have been comparatively positive. It clearly demonstrates that artists have the opportunity and responsibility to try to control the crowd, and they need to be more prepared to do so when needed. It should be the standard procedure to go through such safety protocol in detail when preparing for the concert with the artist.
Preventing such issues at a festival is to a great extent related to the planning and organizing of the whole event. A proper security plan needs to be in place, which includes protocols for several possible emergency scenarios, even some unlikely ones. All parties need to be familiar with the plan, their role related to it and how to act in such situations. This strategy should also consider the festival area itself, and possible risks need to be properly evaluated. Sufficient lighting, exits, signage and water points should correspond to the needs of the amount of people attending the event. It is also important to plan how the area will be monitored throughout the event. If it is not possible to install security cameras and monitor them constantly, drones, for example, can be used for monitoring the audience.
Festival organizers are of course trying to keep the costs as low as possible and make profit by selling as many tickets as possible. It is easy to cross the line with prioritizing profits over safety. If the event organizer wants to sell more tickets, more security personnel are also needed. This increases the costs, and the organizer might be tempted to sell even more tickets or hire less people. After this incident, I hope event organizers will think twice about what amount of security or medics is enough for their event and the target audience.
Astroworld had only two stages, and the main stage was used only during Scott’s performance. This was a big mistake when the schedule was planned, since it created heavy pressure on the main stage area. It’s understandable that the organizer wanted to make it possible for all festivalgoers to see Scott who was part of the organizing group, but most festivals take this issue into account. When the festival area contains several stages and performers are overlapping each other, it is easier to control the crowd and divide them more evenly throughout the area. When the organizer wants to have all festivalgoers at one stage at the same time, the layout of the area needs to be considered carefully, and the amount of people allowed in different sections needs to be monitored.
I suggest that they could sell different tickets to different quadrants. This way the amount of people is controlled, and each section would have its own entrance and exit with security personnel. This makes it possible for the organizer to cover the costs of extra security if the front row tickets are more expensive than the ones at the back. This kind of system works at stadiums, so it would be worth testing also in an outdoor environment.
When things started to spiral during Scott’s performance, the event should have been paused, if not discontinued completely. This way different parties could have communicated clearly what the situation is and what the needs of different areas are. If the artist does not notice the dangerous events himself, there needs to be a way to communicate this to him. The artist could have a chat with the crowd, direct them to make space for the security and medical personnel, and make sure the situation is in control again. This is easier said than done, but the festivalgoers need to be cautious of the wellbeing of others as well. There could be for example a hand gesture established for recognizing such dangerous situations in the crowd. When the audience starts to make a cross symbol with their arms, the artist and organizers could tell from further away that they are not just having fun and partying anymore. These gestures could be monitored with security cameras or drones. Otherwise, it is hard to tell when the audience is not enjoying themselves anymore.
Festivals are a great way to unplug, and release tension from our stressful everyday life. If we want to continue organizing events in the future, we need to establish the best practices for keeping all attendees safe. Nobody should die from attending a festival. This mass casualty will be an example of what could happen again if proper measurements and actions are not taken when organizing an event. This cannot be forgotten, and the findings from it need to be returned to the industry. Scott stepped up and started a safety initiative called Project HEAL, which will hopefully bring a lot of knowledge and understanding to the industry, event organizers, artists, and festivalgoers. It is great to see that Scott is using his huge channels for something good. Hopefully this will reach his followers and won’t be forgotten as time passes.
REFERENCES
Begley, Zach Despart Dug & Tedesco, John 2021. Officials declared a ‘mass casualty’ at Astroworld. For the next 37 minutes, Travis Scott played on. Houston Chronicle. November 8, 2021. Retrieved 04/05/2022. https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/For-37-minutes-after-officials-declared-a-mass-16598473.php
Despart, Zach 2021. 8 biggest revelations from the Houston Chronicle’s in-depth Astroworld investigation. Houston Chronicle. December 3, 2021. Retrieved 13/06/2022. https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/astroworld-fest-tragedy/article/8-biggest-revelations-hc-investigation-16670197.php
Despart, Zach & Ketterer, Samantha & Gill, Julian & Barned-Smith, St. John 2021. NO ESCAPE PLAN: How missed warning signs at Travis Scott’s Astroworld Festival led to one of the worst U.S. concert tragedies. Houston Chronicle. December 3, 2021. Retrieved 04/05/2022. https://www.houstonchronicle.com/projects/2021/astroworld-no-escape-plan/
Ebrahimji, Alisha & Andrew, Scottie 2021. Travis Scott’s concerts have a history of rowdiness and injuries. News article. CNN. Retrieved 03/04/2022. https://edition.cnn.com/2021/11/09/entertainment/travis-scott-injuries-violence-concerts-cec/index.html
Etienne, Vanessa 2022. Billie Eilish Stops Concert to Help a Fan Get an Inhaler: ‘We’re Taking Care of Our People’. People. February 7, 2022. Retrieved 18/10/2022. https://people.com/music/billie-eilish-stops-concert-to-help-fan-get-an-inhaler-were-taking-care-of-our-people/
Hardy, Michael 2021. Who’s To Blame for Astroworld? Anybody but Us, Say Houston Officials. Texas Monthly. November 24, 2021. Retrieved 04/05/2022. https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/astroworld-houston-politicians-blame/
Jeffrey, Joyann 2022. Adele pauses London concert to check on fan in audience: ‘You got him?’. TODAY. July 4, 2022. Retrieved 18/10/2022. https://www.today.com/popculture/music/adele-stops-london-concert-check-fan-audience-rcna36541
Oberg, Ted & Rafique, Sarah 2021. Concert from hell. 13 Investigates looks at the warning signs leading up to the Astroworld tragedy. KTRK-TV. Retrieved 04/05/2022. https://abc13.com/feature/astroworld-2021-festival-travis-scott-astro-fest-security/11213442/
Savage, Mark 2021. Travis Scott festival tragedy: Were warning signs missed at Astroworld? BBC News. November 9, 2021. Retrieved 05/07/2022. https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-59205840
Zemler, Emily 2022. ‘I Need to Step Up’: Travis Scott Launches Event Safety Initiative in Wake of Astroworld Tragedy. Rolling Stone. March 9, 2022. Retrieved 07/07/2022. https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/travis-scott-project-heal-astroworld-1318707/
