After taking a year-long break from production, the infamous AstroWorld festival marked its place in history as one of the most horrific events of 2021. Minutes before Travis Scott’s concert, fans rushed to the front of the pit mercilessly, causing nine deaths and dozens of injuries. While most of the blame has fallen on Scott, the reckless planning and management for the event played a major role in causing a disastrous night.

Over 50,000 people attended this festival and solely 1,200 security guards were able to tame the crowd, so naturally they had a hard time controlling the thousands of rowdy fans in the stadium that night. Videos of the concert spread like wildfire depicting a series of events with fans fainting and being trampled. This brings us to the question: what kind of reckless planning went into this?

A 56 page document explains emergency measures and security plans for AstroWorld, including admission to the concerts and protocol. Crowd management is briefly mentioned, pointing out ”the key in properly dealing with this type of scenario is proper management of the crowd from the minute the doors open” not specifying further. An unorganized and vague protocol was given to staff making it extremely hard to know how to act in this situation. When management provides a reckless and unclear plan, issues are bound to occur and sadly at AstroWorld this irresponsibility led to fatal consequences.

Scott’s crowds have always been known to ensure that everyone in their presence enjoys themselves but can become rowdy. Most of the attendees did not bother to purchase tickets to the festival; instead, they broke down the gates and forced themselves in. Herds of people ran through the security stands and metal detectors allowing a big chunk of them to get away with bringing in any kinds of drugs, alcohol, food or drinks into the festival, a recipe for disaster. Since this was an outdoor event that did not provide assigned seating, people were able to wander around at their own expense. In the 56 page document, a proper plan specifying the next steps in regards to controlling the crowd was nowhere to be seen.

“The audience’s behavior was inexplicable. There were so many people doing whatever they wanted to do which made it all worse. If there were less people, no one would have died,” freshman Andrea Winkeljohn said.

Scott himself is not at fault for this event and could not foresee this disaster but management had a chance to thoroughly prepare and failed. If this festival is attempted next year, a solid plan with detail on protocol needs to be prioritized. Most of Scott’s out-of-state fans traveled from far and wide planning on having the time of their lives, but instead feared whether they would make it back home.