Leadership / 11.10.21

Barriers, Crowd Control in Focus in Astroworld Concert Deaths

Access Staff

Pollstar (11/07/21)

Investigators are expected to scrutinize safety barriers and crowd control to determine what caused a crowd surge at the Astroworld music festival in Houston that killed eight people and injured hundreds more. Authorities plan to use videos, witness interviews and a review of event procedures, and one point of investigation will be how the area around the stage was designed. Event Safety Alliance Vice President Steven Adelman said the probe will also concentrate on whether something incited the crowd to stampede besides rapper Travis Scott taking the stage. "Security obviously was unable to stop people. Optically, that's really bad-looking," he added. "But as for what it tells us, it's too early to say." Houston police and fire department officials said they will look at video shot by concert promoter Live Nation, along with dozens of clips from people at the show; in addition, the event's security plan and various permits issued to organizers will be reviewed to determine if they were properly complied with. Experts who have looked into deaths due to crowd surges say they are often caused by too many people packed into too small a space.

Read the full story from Pollstar. 

Tags: Music , Security , News