Friday the 5th of November, the night of the horrific tragedy at the Astroworld festival. 8 people lost their lives, the youngest being just 14 years old. Deaths were caused by a tragic overcrowding of the venue and uncontrolled surging of Travis Scott’s fans. But who is truly to blame? Tour organisers, event planners, fans, or the artist himself?
Whilst bodies of victims were being carried like crowd surfers out of crime scene, Travis Scott continued to do the robot on a podium. Releasing a statement after the travesty, Travis refuses to take blame for the deaths of victims and plays ignorant to the bodies being carried out right before his eyes. In a show of denial regarding what happened, Travis said ‘I could just never imagine the severity of the situation.’ He claims that if at any point he could make out anything bad going on he would ‘stop the show and help them get the help they need.’
This seems valid enough for Travis to say, but the footage of ambulances trying and failing to get through crowds is tormenting. Check out this video for a snippet of the ambulances.
Travis Scott was captured in a now deleted video, saying ‘I want to see some rages. Who want to rage?' Moments later in a half-hearted attempt to cool the crowd he can be heard saying ‘there’s an ambulance in the crowd, whoa, whoa, whoa.’ The music then briefly paused as the artist recognised the emergency services struggling to break through his fans. The hiatus of calamity was short-lived as the rapper encouraged the crowd to put their middle fingers in the air ‘if everybody good.’ It is even more tragic that Travis was notably aware of the chaos and suffering of his fans, yet proceeded to finish his set.
As with any tragedy, conspiracies have already started circulating. The otherworldly, almost demonic set up of the stage had the show feeling like an entrance to hell. The stage at Astroworld fest was, specifically, designed to look like a portal to hell, featuring an upside-down crucifix, and shadowy figures walking through mist machines. Whilst, this is just the rapper’s aesthetic, fans are beginning to beg the question of whether there was a deeper more sinister motive behind Travis continuing the concert. The conspiracy started via TikTok, as users looked more into the stage design noticing aspects, such as: 8 flames positioned around the front of the stage. In times of desperation, people look for something or someone to blame, in this case fans are finding the coincidence of 8 flames and the 8 lost lives as something preposterously more evil. Travis Scott, is a suspect Satanist according to fans, who claim that the 8 flames represented a sacrificial ritual.
Whilst it is an unfortunate coincidence that Travis Scott’s appearance at the Astroworld festival was based around a demonic, hellish theme. In no way can we look to blame this tragedy on a wildly unreliable conspiracy. This crowd surging disaster was the product of an atrociously planned event, an ignorant artist, and mob-mentality fuelling fans.
As of now, Travis Scott is urging families of victims to contact him via email and vowing to cover funeral costs, whilst also promising mental health support for all that attended the show. He is also currently working with Houston officials to determine who can be deemed responsible.
Ultimately, there needs to be an investigation into why numbers weren’t limited for the show, why event management was so poor, and why Travis Scott neglected to stop, knowing the chaos in the crowd.
You can access relevant videos of the tragedy below.
Comentários