Claudia Rivera 

Editor in Chief 

cmr6395@psu.edu 

Astroworld was an event that many fans looked forward to, especially after COVID- 19. On Friday, November 5, in Houston, Texas, Astroworld by artist Travis Scott was held and unfortunately, eight fans were declared dead and dozens were injured.  

Between Friday and Tuesday, 18 lawsuits have risen. According to Houston’s fire department, five of the injured are in intensive care. One of the fans injured is a nine-year-old boy, who was in a medically induced coma, according to his grandfather. As of November 15, the child was pronounced dead. 

Many people are upset with how Scott handled the concert and how he continued to perform given the horrible events that were occurring. Some choose to defend these actions by stating that there “isn’t much that he could do.” 

This to me is ridiculous that people are defending such heinous actions such as continuing a concert while people are getting injured and dying. 

I do not believe in cancel culture, but I do believe that Scott should be penalized for his despicable actions. I believe that he should have stopped the concert and resumed after everyone injured received medical attention. 

While looking at my social media, I have seen many people defending Scott, by stating “ there was nothing that Travis could have done to stop the performance, people would have rioted.” 

I do not agree with this statement, and this is why–a couple years ago during a Pitbull performance, a similar situation occurred. In order for everyone to receive medical attention, Pitbull stopped his performance and addressed the audience that once those who were injured received medical help, the performance would continue. 

Following the announcement, the audience calmed down and allowed for those injured to get the medical help they needed. While Scott addressed the audience, I do believe that if he had been more firm or open with the audience, this situation could have been avoided and it should have been avoided due to how big the situation began. 

Scott, alongside other artists have apologized, but their apologies have been criticized due to how insincere they were. Many people have spoken about their disbelief and expressed how upset they were with how Scott handled the situation. I believe that he apologized, just because he had to, and if he was sorry he would have stopped the show as it was occurring. 

This is not the end of Scott’s involvement in the matter, and I can’t wait to see how he rectifies the situation.