Who is to blame for Astroworld tragedy?

Alondra Roman, Staff Writer

Nov. 5, 2021 witnessed the tragic deaths of at least eight people and the injury of many more at the Astroworld festival according to CNN news.

Event organizer and Rapper, Travis Scott was performing at the sold-out festival of over 50,000 when tragedy struck at around 9 p.m. Once Scott began concertgoers “surged toward the stage,” according to Vulture.com.

The youngest among the dead was only 14-years-old and the oldest was 27. Among the hospitalized, the youngest is 9 according to Vulture. Concertgoers describe being pushed from behind as others pushed past security barriers. In Tik Tok videos you can see panicked concertgoers desperately seeking help and screaming “people are dying.

In one Tik Tok video you can see a young woman climbing onto the platform where staff was recording screaming, “There’s some-one dying in there! There’s someone dead!” as posted by user @astroverse007.

Scott continued to sing ignoring the screams of others, even stopping the concert to say, “‘Who asked you to stop? Y’all know what y’all came to do,’” according to BBC.com. There are multiple Tik Tok videos of guests screaming for help and to end the concert. Medics are running into the crowd attempting to rescue those injured; yet, the concert continued.

In a video posted by @hannrileyy you can see two male concertgoers dancing on top of an ambulance that was attempting to help those injured. There were multiple signs that Scott should have taken seriously. Had he stopped the concert at the first warning sign this tragedy could have been prevented.

Other artists have paid close attention to their audience and taken the measures necessary to hon-or the safety of their fans. Artists such as Harry Styles, Michael Jackson, Adele and Linkin Park have stopped concerts when witnessing chaos in the crowd.

Scott was given multiple warning signs and could hear the screams of guests. He is among those to blame for the tragedy that occurred. He had the power to stop the concert at the first sign of chaos and overcrowding; instead, he continued to perform as people were dying.

There have been minor situations that other artists have caught as they were performing and have refused to continue the performance until they were taken care of. More and more videos are surfacing of other artists taking action for the safety of their attendees.

There is no reason as to why Scott could not have paused his performance to ask what was happening. He was careless as a performer and organizer. Because of his lack of concern at least eight people are now dead and many more are injured.

The events at the Astroworld Festival can only be described as a night-mare that could have been prevented or minimized had Scott listened to the pleas for help and acted accordingly. His staff were also aware of the terror occurring and should have put an end to the concert immediately.

Unfortunately the lives lost cannot be replaced and the trauma will live on for those that witnessed the tragic event. Scott and those responsible must be held account-able and measures must be taken to prevent another tragedy like this from occurring again.