DALLAS — The Texas Task Force on Concert Safety, formed in the wake of the deadly Astroworld Festival in Houston, released a final report Tuesday with recommendations aiming to keep concertgoers safe at shows across the state.
The report comes five months after a performance by rapper Travis Scott at the festival that left 10 people, including a 10-year-old boy, dead and more than 300 injured.
Hundreds of lawsuits have been filed over injuries and deaths at the concert at NRG Park, where fans surged toward the stage, squeezing people so tightly together that they could not breathe nor move their arms. Officials determined that those killed died from compression asphyxia.
Houston police and federal officials have been investigating the incident. The House Oversight and Reform Committee has also launched an investigation into festival promoter Live Nation and the events that led to the tragedy.
Days after the performance, details emerged that a 56-page operations plan did not include information about how to handle a crowd surge, although precautions for other safety hazards — such as an active shooter, bomb threat, terrorism and severe weather — were covered.
On Nov. 10, Gov. Greg Abbott launched the task force, which was led by Texas Music Office director Brendon Anthony.
According to the report, the task force worked with experts in the fields of concert promotion, public safety, first response and government permitting.
In in-person and virtual meetings, the task force analyzed concert safety and developed ways to enhance security at live music events in the state. The report’s recommendations are “tailored to address gaps that were identified as contributing to safety failures at the Astroworld event.”
The report listed five recommendations for event organizers and others:
—Unified Command Control (UCC): Establish a centralized on-site group with the authority to respond to safety incidents.
—Permitting: Follow guidelines and best practices found in state statutes for mass-gathering events permitted by municipalities and unincorporated areas.
—Training: Ensure that security and event staff have adequate training for each specific event.
—Planning with risk assessment: Identify foreseeable hazards and responses, as well as an established communication tree with local response strategies.
—Centralizing resources: The Texas Music office will place resource documents on its website.
“The recommendations, findings, and solutions detailed in this report will help the State of Texas prevent another tragedy like that at Astroworld Festival from happening again,” Abbott said in a statement.
Among the victims of the festival was Dallas-area resident Danish Baig, 27, who died saving his fiancée at the show, his family said. Also, Ezra Blount, a 9-year-old Dallas-area boy, died after being put into a medically induced coma. Blount’s parents declined Scott’s offer to cover the boy’s funeral expenses.
____
