The Travis Scott tragedy has happened before. And it will happen again.

The incident that took place at Astroworld doesn’t need any more introduction, but, as I’m sure you know, a surge of concert attendees were suffocated due to overcrowding.   If not, check out this article.

While this may seem like a freak accident at first this event actually has a name. “Crowd Crush” is the phenomenon where people can die of asphyxiation from overcrowding. The Astroworld event claimed 300 injuries and resulted in 10 deaths. This phenomenon has history in various crowds, typically in the mosh pits of rock, rap and pop crowds. For example, 11 people were killed in a rush to enter concert from The Who in 1979.

Incidents like this have even happened in sporting events, such as the 1985 stampede led by Liverpool soccer fans, claiming the lives of 39 attendants. Only four years later, a similar stampede killed 100 Liverpool fans. 

Tragedies like these happen due to people being squeezed from  the back and front. The pressure from a crowd colliding is enough to bend steel. The most people killed from a crowd surge was from the Hajj, a worshiping event in Muslim culture. In 2015, two crowds collided, resulting in 2,400 deaths.

It is important to educate yourself on what to do if caught in a crowd surge.  Check out this article by CNN.  Be safe!