8 dead after crowd surge at US festival

[existentialist]

Here's how you do it

That made me tear up. Totally in charge of it. Good for her.

 

[existentialist]

It looks grim - but people do pass out at concerts all the time, I'm not sure whether anything would have looked out of the ordinary from Scott's perspective.

I wonder if organisers being rusty or understaffed played any role in this, Texas lifted occupancy restrictions on concerts back in March but I think this might have been the biggest musical event in Houston since before the pandemic.

Even in smaller venues, on smaller stages, it can be very hard to see past the stage lighting - the audience is often pretty much in shadow.

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

My mate was their FOH engineer (still is for Noel). His story of this day is… terrifying, tbh.

The force of the crowd surge at the start moved the entire front barrier back several feet and broke it at one point. If you’ve ever had to pick that stuff up you’ll know just how high that force must have been.

 

[editor]

That made me tear up. Totally in charge of it. Good for her.

There's a video of her doing the same at Glastonbury and she was bloody amazing.

 

[Petcha]

It's all pretty damning. I didn't know he actually founded the festival himself as well so presumably will be partly responsible for the shite organisation. The US being the litigious society it is, well. I'm sure he's more than a little worried.

Astroworld: questions over why Travis Scott played on as crush developed

Two investigations launched after eight people killed at event in Houston on Friday night

www.theguardian.com

What a total and utter prick. That video of him being 'devastated'. Wow. He played on for over half an hour after being made aware of there being a situation, I'm sure he didn't know people were dying but just stop the show you idiot.

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

The fault there isn’t entirely his. As a performer on stage if there is track coming into your IEMs you perform. You rely on and trust your crew to give you any information needed. The stage and site managers should have shut it down the moment the situation developed. All crew on a stage that size have earpieces and radio comms with each other. There has been a tragic lack of safety procedure here.

 

[Petcha]

The fault there isn’t entirely his. As a performer on stage if there is track coming into your IEMs you perform. You rely on and trust your crew to give you any information needed. The stage and site managers should have shut it down the moment the situation developed. All crew on a stage that size have earpieces and radio comms with each other. There has been a tragic lack of safety procedure here.

A) it sounds like he was made aware there was situation according to that washington post article but still played on for another 40 minutes and b) there was an ambulance clearly in view of him in the middle of the crowd. which instead of encouraging his fans to make way for he encouraged them to raise their fingers at.

 

[existentialist]

A) it sounds like he was made aware there was situation according to that washington post article but still played on for another 40 minutes and b) there was an ambulance clearly in view of him in the middle of the crowd. which instead of encouraging his fans to make way for he encouraged them to raise their fingers at.

Whatever, I think the point that people like beesonthewhatnow is making is that it's not really down to the artist to be worrying about safety. Though one would hope that they wouldn't be actively impeding safety.

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

A) it sounds like he was made aware there was situation according to that washington post article but still played on for another 40 minutes and b) there was an ambulance clearly in view of him in the middle of the crowd. which instead of encouraging his fans to make way for he encouraged them to raise their fingers at.

I said “…not entirely his fault”.

If I was on a stage, having been told of “a situation” then I would assume it had been deemed safe to carry on working until the voice of the stage manager in my ear told me to cut the sound/evac/whatever.

I’m not absolving him of blame, just trying to point out that the chain of events that led to the tragedy lies on the shoulders of a number of people long before it gets to the guy on stage holding a microphone.

 

[kenny g]

This is the promo video for the concert:

It is the organisers pretty much inciting manic crowds.

 

[two sheds]

Will be interesting to know whether he didn't know or was told and just carried on.

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

Will be interesting to know whether he didn't know or was told and just carried on.

He can't just carry on if he wants to if people are doing their jobs properly. The monitor feed to his IEM feed could have been muted, his mic muted, the PA muted, the show lights shuttered and the working/audience lights brought up, and so on. This is what I'm trying to stress - a performer on stage is not the one in charge, they do not make these calls.

 

[spitfire]

He can't just carry on if he wants to if people are doing their jobs properly. The monitor feed to his IEM feed could have been muted, his mic muted, the PA muted, the show lights shuttered and the working/audience lights brought up, and so on. This is what I'm trying to stress - a performer on stage is not the one in charge, they do not make these calls.

Sending a vehicle into a crowd like this without doing all of the above is madness. I'm not surprised he was all WTF. No reason he would have known it was an ambulance either as private ambulances can look very different to regular ambulances.

I have no reason to defend him but it's not as cut and dried as people think. You can't see or hear fuck all from the stage really.

 

[Petcha]

He can't just carry on if he wants to if people are doing their jobs properly. The monitor feed to his IEM feed could have been muted, his mic muted, the PA muted, the show lights shuttered and the working/audience lights brought up, and so on. This is what I'm trying to stress - a performer on stage is not the one in charge, they do not make these calls.

There was an ambulance in his crowd. He saw it. Nothing to do with lighting. At that point most rational performers would have stopped the show. Not got the crowd even more pumped up. I accept he's not 100% responsible but he could have shut that shit down himself at any point, not bitched about the fact an ambulance was ruining his buzz.

 

[Petcha]

Sending a vehicle into a crowd like this without doing all of the above is madness. I'm not surprised he was all WTF. No reason he would have known it was an ambulance either as private ambulances can look very different to regular ambulances.

I have no reason to defend him but it's not as cut and dried as people think. You can't see or hear fuck all from the stage really.

Have you watched the video? It's very clearly an ambulance and (hopefully) he doesn't see too many of those driving through his audiences very often. I would also assume the paramedics had no other option as they must have done a pretty quick risk assessment before driving into a crowd like that.

 

[kenny g]

I am more than willing to believe there have been multiple fuck ups.

 

[spitfire]

Have you watched the video? It's very clearly an ambulance and (hopefully) he doesn't see too many of those driving through his audiences very often. I would also assume the paramedics had no other option as they must have done a pretty quick risk assessment before driving into a crowd like that.

I did yes, the guy is clearly a massive dick but I think if he'd seriously understood what was going on he would have stopped. Until someone says STOP, performers keep going, that's what they do.

As the promo video above illustrates it is a pretty robust, intense crowd so only a tipping point away from disaster at the best of times.

I'm sure he isn't blameless but as bees says, it goes way deeper than that. This was an organisational failure. He didn't help matters but when you're on stage it's really difficult to see what is going on.

I'm not going to waste any more pixels on defending someone I couldn't give a fuck about but it's important that we look at these things accurately and not just blame a convenient figurehead.

 

[spitfire]

* Subject to investigation where it becomes clear it was all his fault.

 

[Petcha]

I did yes, the guy is clearly a massive dick but I think if he'd seriously understood what was going on he would have stopped. Until someone says STOP, performers keep going, that's what they do.

As the promo video above illustrates it is a pretty robust, intense crowd so only a tipping point away from disaster at the best of times.

I'm sure he isn't blameless but as bees says, it goes way deeper than that. This was an organisational failure. He didn't help matters but when you're on stage it's really difficult to see what is going on.

I'm not going to waste any more pixels on defending someone I couldn't give a fuck about but it's important that we look at these things accurately and not just blame a convenient figurehead.

Ok. We'll agree to disagree. It was his own festival, he saw the ambulance, he was told there was a situation, he carried on for over half an hour, he encouraged the crowd to raise their fingers at the paramedics. But other than that, he's blameless.

He then puts up a press release in perfect English on his social whereas if you read the rest of his posts he's barely literate, most of it being 'fucccckk yeah, me got a new release tonight'

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

Ok. We'll agree to disagree. It was his own festival, he saw the ambulance, he was told there was a situation, he carried on for over half an hour, he encouraged the crowd to raise their fingers at the paramedics. But other than that, he's blameless.

(my bold)

I don't think you quite understand how these things work.

 

[Petcha]

I do find it astonishing that some are blaming the paramedics for the deaths for driving an ambulance into the crowd, bonkers.

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

I do find it astonishing that some are blaming the paramedics for the deaths for driving an ambulance into the crowd, bonkers.

Who is doing this?

 

[Petcha]

Who is doing this?

Sending a vehicle into a crowd like this without doing all of the above is madness. I'm not surprised he was all WTF. No reason he would have known it was an ambulance either as private ambulances can look very different to regular ambulances.

I have no reason to defend him but it's not as cut and dried as people think. You can't see or hear fuck all from the stage really.

 

[Petcha]

(my bold)

I don't think you quite understand how these things work.

I get that you're in the music business, which is amazing, so please explain?

 

[tonysingh]

Who is doing this?

Cunts

 

[spitfire]

wow. OK.

They were surely doing their best, they shouldn't have been put in that situation, which they wouldn't have been if the organisation had been properly organised.

 

[spitfire]

I do find it astonishing that some are blaming the paramedics for the deaths for driving an ambulance into the crowd, bonkers.

This is fucking mental, get fucked.

 

[Petcha]

Just saw on the beeb that concertgoers who were injured have already launched lawsuits against him, Livenation and Drake for millions. America.

 

[spitfire]

Just saw on the beeb that concertgoers who were injured have already launched lawsuits against him, Livenation and Drake for millions. America.

Good. I hope they all get absolutely roasted because what happened is fucking awful.

 

[spitfire]

Last one for me as I really should be in bed.

Live Nation are possibly the biggest promoters on the planet, (citation needed).

This happened at their event.

I'd be looking direct at them for a start, others are also clearly culpable. But Live Nation have enough money and experience to make sure people don't die. Most of the time...