Travis Scott’s Astroworld Music Festival tragedy in Houston, which killed 10 people, has touched off a new debate at the intersection of venue safety, artist responsibility and crowd etiquette.
To help understand the role that policy plays in shaping events like Astroworld, CNN talked to Gil Fried, a crowd management expert and professor at the University of West Florida.
During the conversation, professor Fried brought the example of Eminem to avoid such tragedy.
“I handled similar case a number of years ago with Eminem where there was a crowd rush at an Eminem concert down South. And a number of people got injured, and he ended up making a game out of it.”
“Eminem said to the crowd, “Okay, everyone, I’m going to start a new dance with you. Okay? Two steps back, one step forward, two steps back, one step forward.” And he was trying to alleviate the pressure of everyone that was pushed up against the barricade by doing that. And an artist can do that. An artist can say, “Hey folks, I am going to stop the concert for a couple minutes because we have an issue here. You know what? I will make it up for you guys. I will sing an extra song at the end, but I need you to listen to me. Everyone, let’s turn on the houselights. Let’s do X, let’s do Y.” Artists can do that and that is not going to trigger a mob. People are going to be respectful and listen to that.” said Gil Fried.
Back in 2001, Eminem was headliner at a Scottish festival, Green event in Glasgow. The performance was halted for 30 minutes while security pulled 45 injured fans from the surging. “Eminem and his band D12 did all they could to help the situation and we are grateful for his support,” a spokesman for Strathclyde police told the AP.
For the full interview, visit CNN here.
