By Bethany Schaufler-Biback
Since the events of Travis Scott’s Astroworld concert on November 5th, 2021, which led to 10* deaths and numerous injuries, great attention has been brought to the safety of attendees and the role in which the performer plays in their audience’s safety (CBC News, 2021). After the concert, many Astroworld attendees were enraged claiming that Travis chose to ignore the calls for help from the audience. Despite Scott expressing that he couldn’t hear the calls for help while performing, these claims led to much uproar across social media platforms such as Twitter and TikTok (ET Canada, 2021). People began sharing videos of times artists assisted fans when noticing they needed help as means to prove that something could have been done to prevent or lessen the casualties of Astroworld. Following suit of those on social media, media outlets such as Buzzfeed and PopSugar leapt to producing lists of instances when artists stopped shows to help fans. From November 5th – November 30, 2021 alone, at least 15** articles were published bringing attention to artists in the past who have helped their audience when in need (do I need to cite every one?). As described in these articles, performers stopping performance to assist fans isn’t a novel occurrence. However, the incident that occurred at Astroworld has undoubtedly sparked interest in the performer’s role in audience safety amongst the general public, calling into question what exactly the performer’s responsibility is to the audience during live performance.
In early June I attended my first concert since the beginning of the pandemic. Here I saw Phoebe Bridgers in Toronto at Echo Beach: an outdoor venue that neighbours the water. Despite the excitement of returning to concerts, what was especially notable about this experience was the mere number of times the performance was called to a halt by the performer on account of audience members requiring medical attention for reasons such as fainting. In this single concert, the performance was stopped 5 times.
With each pause of the performance, it was clear where the audience drew the line of acceptable reasons to stop the performance and inexcusable disturbances. The first audience member that needed help was close to the area where I was located, meaning that myself and those around me could visibly conceptualize the person who needed assistance and see them receive aid. During this instance, I could hear those around me expressing concern and hopes that the person needing help was ok. Each member that needed help afterwards was nowhere near where I was standing. As the second, third, fourth, and fifth person needed the medics causing the show to cease for a few moments, the concerned comments faded into mutterings amongst those around me. Comments of care turned to sighs of discontent and frustration of those requesting help. Comments included but weren’t limited to assumptions of people seeking help from the performer for attention to complaints of patrons not properly taking care of themselves prior to the concert resulting in dehydration and fainting. For the last few occurrences, I overheard a group of 3 people in front of me displeasingly express that the dehydration of someone who didn’t take care of themselves shouldn’t be Phoebe’s responsibility while she is trying to perform1.
This question of performer responsibility and safety has relevance across all forms of live performance. When considering my experience at Phoebe Bridgers in relation to the Travis Scott incidents, I was reminded of the safety and responsibility conversation that is occurring regarding participatory and immersive theatre. Companies known for their immersive experiences such as Punchdrunk have reported multiple instances of assault during their performances. Given their anonymized “go and explore” audience model, audience members and performers alike find themselves in situations where much of their safety is at the expense of those, they are sharing space with. When considering safety and responsibility in each of these modes of live performance, what is the performer’s job when considering audience safety? And where is the line drawn that leaves audiences ultimately responsible for their own wellbeing? I think these two questions call attention to perhaps a contract between the audience and performers during a live performance. What would the responsibilities of a performer as a care giver entail? And if the performer is to take on a caregiver role over the audience, what is the audience’s responsibility to the performer (i.e., in the case of the Phoebe Bridgers concert, should audience members be queueing over 12 hours without proper food and water prior to performance? While I have no finite answers or insights for these plentiful questions right now, they are ones that that I will to continue to investigate while I research audience safety in theatre, and hope to respond to these questions in the mode of a subsequent blog post.
Works Cited
ET Canada. Travis Scott Says He 'Didn't Hear' Cries For Help At Astroworld Festival. YouTube, YouTube, 9 Dec. 2021, www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1zg8yU1U18&ab_channel=ETCanada.
Sloss, Morgan. “17 Times Musicians Stopped Their Shows to Prioritize the Safety of Their Fans.” BuzzFeed, BuzzFeed, 11 Nov. 2021, www.buzzfeed.com/morgansloss1/musicians-stopped-shows-safety-travis-scott-astroworld.
“Travis Scott Concert Deaths Were Caused by Compression Asphyxia, Officials Say | CBC News.” CBCnews, CBC/Radio Canada, 16 Dec. 2021, www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/travis-scott-concert-deaths-compression-asphyxia-1.6288786.
Vargas, Chanel. “Harry Styles, Lady Gaga, and More Singers Who Stopped Performing Midshow to Help Fans.” POPSUGAR Entertainment, 13 Nov. 2021, www.popsugar.com/entertainment/celebrities-who-stopped-concerts-to-help-fans-48596888.