After Astroworld Tragedy In Texas, Other Music Festivals Face New Scrutiny Over Crowd Safety
HOUSTON (CBSDFW.COM/CNN) - Seven days after the Astroworld tragedy in Texas, another major music festival is kicking off November 12 in Las Vegas.
While Travis Scott, a Houston native, is no longer scheduled to perform at Day N Vegas -- he pulled out and has been replaced by North Texan Post Malone -- the concert industry and law enforcement will be watching the crowds at the three-day event and other music festivals this weekend.
About 50,000 people are expected to attend Day N Vegas -- roughly the same number of people as Scott's event in Houston. It's one of at least eight music festivals across the US this weekend, including Freakout in Seattle, Electric Daisy Carnival in Orlando and Welcome to Rockville in Daytona Beach, Florida.
Organizers for Day N Vegas, Electric Daisy Carnival and Welcome to Rockville did not respond to requests for comment about whether they are revamping safety procedures in the wake of what happened at the Astroworld Festival in Houston.
But the Astroworld crowd surge, which killed nine people during a performance by Scott, is spurring law enforcement in some cities to take another look at their concert safety measures.
Public officials, law enforcement and first responders in Las Vegas have met several times this week to discuss crowd safety at this weekend's festival, said Officer Larry Hadfield, a spokesman for the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.
"We've had meetings about this. It's part of our planning," said Hadfield, who added that Day N Vegas is relatively small compared to other music festivals in the city. "We take into account what has occurred, look at contingency plans, take into consideration all those things and prepare for scenarios, such as what happens if something becomes dangerous."
Experts Say Lessons Can Be Learned From Astroworld
Security experts are urging organizers to use the Houston tragedy as a teachable moment.
Peter Eliadis, a former law enforcement official, said Astroworld will be used as a case study for years on what happens when an event goes bad.
"Lessons learned will be applied and incorporated into future planning across the country," said Eliadis, the founder of Intelligence Consulting Partners, which assists in planning large-scale events in the US and overseas. "This includes stronger input from fire/EMS and law enforcement at the planning stage of an event."
City officials and concert organizers must take into account entertainers' past performances and decide whether those who attract unruly crowd behavior are welcome at their events, he said.
"Their decision should incorporate safety and not just initial financial gain that a concert will bring," he said, adding that lawsuits over the Astroworld tragedy may drain promoters' profits.
Officials must be able to quickly pause or shut down a concert if it is compromising safety, Eliadis said.
Paul Wertheimer, founder of the Crowd Management Strategies consulting firm, takes a more cynical view.
"This incident is a recurrence of past incidents," he said, citing other events where concertgoers died. "Every time event planners and promoters get a wake up call, they hit the snooze button. They're not gonna learn anything. It sounds negative and cynical, but it's true. They say all the right things but they never do the right thing."
To avoid more deaths, many changes need to happen, Wertheimer said, including stricter event licensing, mandatory crowd-safety courses for promoters and national standards for the way concerts are managed.
"Right now, you have no idea what venue is safe and what's not," he said.
Live Nation Entertainment, the concert promoter that organized the Astroworld Festival, has been cited about a dozen times for numerous safety issues, records show. The company has said it's "heartbroken" over Astroworld and is cooperating with authorities as they investigate why the event turned deadly.
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