On 5 November, tragedy struck the Astroworld Festival in Houston, US, when a crowd surge during rapper Travis Scott’s set left nine dead and many more injured and traumatised.
The 30-year-old rapper has since uploaded an apology video, offering assistance to the families of the deceased. However questions have been arising about how security was handled at the event.
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Many videos of the concert were posted to social media, incurring the fury of netizens who questioned why Travis didn’t stop the performance even though people were in danger. An injured concert-goer is suing the rapper-producer, the concert promoter, and other parties for the incident. One of these clips showed paramedics trying to revive someone in the audience while the 30-year-old rapper danced on stage.
There were also several TikToks indirectly responding to this horrific incident, showing various superstars stopping their concerts to ensure the safety of their fans.
The British songstress was in the middle of her performance of Rolling In The Deep when she noticed something amiss. Immediately, she turned around to tell her band to stop, and pointed out that someone in the audience had fainted. She also called upon the staff to help the person.
@shane.dermott and didn’t carry on until she knew they were safe 👏🏻
During a concert in Los Angeles back in 2019, Bobby from Korean boy group iKon similarly called for the backing track to be stopped when he discovered that someone in the crowd had passed out. The 25-year-old rapper also asked fans if they were okay before resuming the performance.
Kudos to these two Korean boy groups as well, who did not start their performances until they had ensured that their fans were safe.
In particular, one of the members from Stray Kids told fans: “We’re not gonna do the show until you move back, it’s really dangerous.”
While getting her fans to sing along to Ocean Eyes, Billie saw that a fan in the audience was unwell. She stopped the song and went to the back of the stage to retrieve a bottle of water for the fan.
Upon hearing that there are others in the crowd who weren’t feeling too good, she asked: “What can I do to help?”
@echodelacruzz “How are guys, are you guys okay?” – Billie Eilish the way she cared for her fans says a lot about her 💙💙💙 #billieeilish #concert #travisscott #tiktok #foryoupage #fyp #tiktokusaofficial #tiktokphilippines
In this slightly older video, the late Chester Bennington asked the surrounding concert-goers to help pick up a fan who had fallen. Towards the end, he also reminded his fans to “pick em’ up” if someone falls.
Travis Scott should watch this clip of Chester Bennington of Linkin Park handling a crowd pic.twitter.com/JWcfhcdeTa
— Wu-Tang Is For The Children (@WUTangKids) November 7, 2021
Going one step further than his celebrity counterparts, the late singer Kurt Cobain protected a fan from sexual assault by putting down his guitar mid-way through his song to run up to the perpetrator, telling him to stop what he was doing. In the next clip, one of his band members also publicly humiliated the man by pointing at him and telling the crowd: “Look at him, look at him!”
Text: Claudia Tan/AsiaOne
@unholy.alternative Reply to @iloveevanpeters37264 No excuses for Travis Scott’s behavior during that concert. #travisscott #astroworld #nirvana #kurtcobain #stopassault