Festival safety, and what Astroworld got wrong, from the music lover’s perspective

As someone who regularly attends music festivals, the news of Astroworld’s tragedy is both frightening and infuriating. (The latest news of nine-year-old Ezra Blount’s death more than a week after the event, brings the total count to 10 lives lost.) These emotions arose not just from the loss of life, but from the clear festival safety negligence from organizers and Travis Scott himself. Echoing the masses of comments, the shocking scale of this tragedy was preventable.  First, I was not at Astroworld, so precedence should be given to survivors’ families' stories and those still healing injuries. I hope that all those affected by this event find the justice and peace they deserve.  Music festivals are meant to serve as an escape from reality, an experience where attendees are surrounded by people who share their love of the same music and the community it provides. Everyone onsite trusts that festival organizers have created a safe environment. No matter the number of fans, whether it's 100 people or 100,000, the safety of all fans and staff should be priority number one.  It is the duty of XP professionals to ensure festival safety. Here’s what that entails:   1. OVER-COMMUNICATE. Every festival needs an...