A tragedy unfolded Nov. 5 at Travis Scott’s Astroworld Festival in Houston where eight people died and over 300 were injured. 

The concert, which was meant to hold over 50,000 people, quickly became overcrowded, and audience members were trampling over each other, trying to get closer to the stage.

Footage taken by the audience shows multiple people chanting “stop the show,” and Scott staring as people received CPR and ambulance lights flashed among the crowd.

The concert went on for 37 minutes after Houston police declared the incident a “mass casualty” and event staff attempted to get Scott to stop the show.

This wasn’t the first time Scott has incited violence amongst his fans. In 2015, Scott was arrested during his Lollapalooza set for encouraging the crowd to storm the stage. He was arrested again in 2017 and charged with inciting a riot, disorderly conduct and endangering the welfare of a minor after encouraging the crowd to rush the stage.

Clearly this man has a history of violence, and apparently it takes eight people between the ages of 14 and 27 to literally die before this man catches any heat for his violent actions.

Many of his fans have taken to the internet to defend him, saying it’s not Scott’s fault for the security response and that his only duty was to perform. 

As if there aren’t videos of Scott staring directly at crowd-surfing dead bodies and rushing security staff off the stage after they tried to warn him. Those things very much fall on Mr. Scott’s shoulders. 

Being a Travis Scott fan was already a red flag before, as his lyrics encouraged male rage and aggression and the artist has a history of violence, but it’s even more so now.  

How can people defend someone who so clearly doesn’t care about his fans safely? How can Travis Scott have a career after this incident? 

Videos of other musicians like Adele, Linkin Park and My Chemical Romance have resurfaced where they have stopped their show due to complications in the crowd. The posters of these videos have noted how easy it is to stop a show and make sure the audience is safe– something Travis Scott did not do.

Travis Scott should have stopped his show and made sure his fans were safe, but because he failed to do that, he should be held responsible for every injury and lost life– whatever that may mean in the eyes of the law.

The Collegian Editorial Board meets weekly and agrees on the issue of the editorial. The editorial represents the opinion of The Collegian.