In a vibrant world of live music, where a concert can create special memories, recent tragedies have shone light on the importance of concert safety.
Incidents like the 2021 Astroworld Festival, headlined by Travis Scott, serves as a remainder for risks associated with large-scale events. On Nov. 17, 2023, a Taylor Swift fan died shortly after an “Eras Tour” show in Brazil.
Concert deaths date back to the 60’s at festivals like the Woodstock Festival in New York. In 1969, there were three deaths and over 6,000 injuries, according to the Aldo Raineri, the d irector of Work Health and Safety Policy and Legislation at Central Queensland University .
In the same year, the Californian Altamont Speedway Free Festival ended in three deaths and 850 injuries, according to Raineri. Presence of the Hells Angels gang erupted violence.
Raineri said these festivals’ deaths were caused by violence, including gang violence, as a result of the culture of rock music concerts being energetic. Lighting, sound, special effects and performer behavior can create a certain environment at a concert.
More recently, concertgoers have been commonly dying from compressed asphyxiation. Compression asphyxia is when respiration is prevented by external forces on one’s body, according to the National Library of Medicine.
At large-scale events, the volume of concertgoers can cause asphyxiation, according to Raineri. Other factors like overheating and anxiety play a part in this. If a concert goer collapses, more difficultures are presented.
“Access to those who fall is virtually impossible,” Raineri said. “Removal of those in distress can only be accompanied by lifting them up and passing them overhead to the exterior of the crowd.”
Awareness of other factors like extreme weather have been presented as important after a Taylor Swift concertgoer died of cardiac arrest on Nov. 17, according to the New York Times’ publication on the incident.
The fan, 23-year-old Ana Clara Benevides, lost consciousness at the concert and was pronounced dead due to cardiac arrest after being brought to the hospital for treatment. Other concertgoers reported difficulties getting water while in Rio De Janeiro’s 106 degree Fahrenheit heat.
On Nov. 5, 2021, Houston Texas Astroworld Festival ended in 10 people dead due to compression asphyxia, according to an AP news article published in July . The victims’ ages ranged from 9 to 27 years old. The incident led to a 1,300 page investigation into the tragic deaths.
Although there are many examples of concerts going wrong, recent incidents like the Astroworld Festival have pushed for investigation and reform. This is seen in artists and media industries’ responses after large-scale tragedies.
Travis Scott’s festival has led to more than 500 lawsuits, according to AP news. Most of these lawsuits are against Scott and the concert promoter Live Nation. Currently, neither of them have faced criminal charges.
After the tragedy, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott created a task force to investigate concert safety as well as the events on Nov. 5, according to AP News. Abbott created this force as a result of the 2021 Astroworld Festival. It was soon determined that people without tickets entered the area that day, therefore overwhelming staff and security.
There are no federal laws for crowd safety or crowd control. However, state and municipal powers can implement regulations for putting on large-scale events.
In Rhode Island, the Office of the State Fire Marshal requires trained crowd managers on duty for every 250 people at an event.
The 2021 edition of the National Fire Protection Association’s Life Safety Codes provide regulations, like crowd density and adequate exits.
“In places larger than 10,000 square feet, the crowd density shouldn’t exceed one person every 7 square feet,” the NFPA wrote in their code.
Artists react in different ways to these tragedies. From observation on social media, the public generally expects a response from an artist whose event ended in death or injury.
After Benevides died, Taylor Swift canceled her subsequent show, according to an NPR article . The weather in Rio De Janeiro remained extreme with high temperatures of heat. Swift made a statement on her social media in regards to Benevides’ death.
After the 2021 Astroworld Festival, according to APnews, Travis Scott created project HEAL. This is a $5 million initiative where a fraction of the money will fund efforts to address safety challenges for large-scale events.
Artists and the media industry react to large-scale event tragedies. However, there are always regulations to be implemented in order to find control over large crowds in an energetic environment like a music festival or concert.