The Mishandling of Astroworld
Carla Paz
On November 5th, ten people died and hundreds were injured at Travis Scott’s Astroworld Festival. In the aftermath of this tragedy, many questions were raised regarding the way Travis Scott and his management team allowed something like this to occur.
To understand how such mismanagement happened, we have to look at the event’s timeline. The victims of Astroworld were crushed and stampeded by a surge of fans rushing to the stage’s front at 9:30 pm, according to police. One victim, Madeline Eskins, said, “It happens, people rush the stage, no big deal, it's uncomfortable, some get hurt, but this was way overcrowded. I've never seen anything like it. I felt like I was going to die." Travis Scott continued the concert for forty minutes longer, ending at 10:10 pm. He did stop the show once so that a passed-out fan would be able to receive medical attention. According to those in the crowd that night, many fans asked for him to end the concert so that those unconscious could get help. Travis’s response to this was, “Who asked you to stop? Y'all know what y'all came to do." Many videos show ambulances struggling to get through the crowd, with concert-goers even climbing on the vehicles to dance on top of them. Two concert-goers, Seanna Faith McCarty and Ayden Cruz, climbed up to the camera platform to tell the cameraman to stop the show. No one stopped the show, despite security and the cameramen being aware of the situation. The mismanagement of Astroworld is what ultimately killed ten people.
In the wake of this tragedy, Travis Scott teamed up with Betterhelp—a therapy app—to offer a free month of therapy to those affected by the tragedy. This partnership is problematic for one reason: Betterhelp’s own controversies. Since Betterhelp is a therapy app, there is a gray area when it comes to confidentiality. The medical privacy law HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability Accountability Act) does not apply to Betterhelp. This law protects medical data from being sold to third parties. Though Betterhelp says they follow HIPAA guidelines, the data collected can still be used in different ways. For example, Betterhelp sells their data to Facebook. According to Betterhelp’s president Alon Matas, “[Facebook] can use data from other apps on an aggregated level, not on an individual basis. It says so explicitly both in their engagement with advertisers like us, as well as in their public information.” This means that Facebook can use your data for targeted advertising on all of its platforms. As people analyze the use of Betterhelp’s services, another concern arises. After the initial month free trial, what will the people using the service do if they cannot afford to renew the service? One month of free therapy will not fix the trauma of seeing hundreds of people trampled in front of you. As of now, there has been no statement from Travis or Betterhelp on the aftermath of the initial month. It’s safe to assume that the user will have to pay to keep the service.
Since the concert, many lawsuits have been filed against Travis Scott, Drake, Live Nation, and Apple. This lawsuit seeks $2 billion in damages on behalf of 282 plaintiffs. Lawyer Thomas J. Henry stated in a complaint on behalf of Kristian Paredes: “The defendants stood to make an exorbitant amount of money off of this event, and they still chose to cut corners, cut costs, and put attendees at risk, my clients want to ensure the defendants are held responsible for their actions, and they want to send the message to all performers, event organizers, and promoters that what happened at Astroworld cannot happen again.” Drake was a surprise guest during Travis Scott’s set, Live Nation is the company behind Astroworld, and Apple streamed the concert on their music platform.
Travis Scott has since apologized on his Instagram stories, which later became a meme because of how insincere it appeared to be. He also released a statement in which he said he would support the families of those affected, along with the Houston PD who are currently investigating the event. Travis’s response to everything felt like a prepared PR response. This makes it seem as though does not care about the ten people who died, and only cares about saving his reputation.
Everyone involved in this tragedy should be held accountable. Countless people lost their lives as a result of negligence. Those who stopped ambulances from getting to the victims should also be held responsible, as they contributed to the many dead and injured.
Right now, it’s important to remember those who died, and their families. These victims wanted to enjoy a festival they most likely looked forward to for a long time, but ultimately lost their lives due to negligence.
Source:
Image Source:
Comments