Going to a concert shouldn't be scary. What to do when it is.
In March 2020 with the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, concerts – events that in most cases draw large, tightly packed crowds – changed. Across the world, artists canceled their planned shows, and when concerts finally resumed, they were different. They often came after months of rescheduling with new strict protocols, now mainly outdoors and with a level of inherent risk that hadn't been felt before.
To some, concerts already seemed scary. Then came Astroworld.
With the tragic deaths and nightmare-inducing scenes from Houston, where eight people died and dozens more were injured when fans rushed the stage at a Travis Scott concert, some are feeling a heightened sense of fear around concerts, which experts say is to be expected.
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“Concerts are an escape for people,” said Alex Piquero, a criminologist and the chair of the Department of Sociology at the University of Miami. “It’s like a sporting event. You’re going there to have a good time and not worry about your bad boss and your bad teacher gave you a bad grade. You’re going there to totally let loose."
The deaths at Astroworld have made people more aware of the dangers of crowds, Piquero said.
“There are lessons here from a security perspective to try create better barriers but also an educational perspective for people that ... next time I go to a concert, I have to pay a little more attention to not only my behavior but the behavior of the people around me.”
Experts say it's important to put into perspective the rarity of a tragedy like Astroworld
Steve Allen, a safety expert who has run security for bands like Oasis and Shakira, said every artist he had ever worked with has been willing to abide by what he called a "showstop" or a signal that it was time to turn on the lights for safety reasons.
"There can be a knee jerk reaction where everyone thinks 'Oh no one can ever stand in a crowd again,'" he said. "That's completely wrong. There's thousands of concerts that happen around the world month-in and month-out that are safe events."
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Allen puts the onus on event organizers to make sure there is enough quality security to properly handle crowd surges.
"It can be managed, and it is managed regularly around the world."
Baruch Fischhoff, a professor at the Carnegie Melon, said it's important to remember that generally institutions are set up to avoid tragedies like the one that happened in Houston. He discussed the question of how to decide if a concert was safe with one of his classes on Tuesday and the consensus they came to was it's impossible to know; there's always a slight risk.
"You have to trust that people do their jobs. Somebody is responsible for making people safe and from all accounts this seems to be a classic system failure," he said.
High-profile tragedies lead to anxiety
While extremely rare, there have been other tragedies that have shaken the concert industry and the world.
Twenty two people died in a suicide bombing at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester in 2017. That same year, 59 people were killed and more than 500 injured when a gunman opened fire on at the Route 91 Harvest festival in Las Vegas while Jason Aldean performed. In 2015, more than 100 people were killed in a terrorist attack in Paris during an Eagles of Death Metal show at the Bataclan theatre.
Jenny Cureton, a professor at Kent State University, said it's important to acknowledge anxiety is a "normal response" when planning to attend a concert with this latest tragedy fresh on people's minds.
"Anxiety is actually a stress response, and its intention is to be helpful," she said. "Even if it gets in the way of living our lives the way that we want to, I think even just reminding ourselves that 'this anxiety that I'm having is supposed to be a good thing.'
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"There's nothing inherently wrong with experiencing that anxiety. It's very right because it's a sign that we care. We care about the people who were impacted and we want to keep ourselves safe and we want to keep our loved ones safe."
If the thought of going to a concert triggers anxiety, she suggested listening to your body and trying to figure out how to regulate it before trying to make plans around a concert.
"If we can do self-regulation activities to bring ourselves re-centered, then we can get our brains back on track to make good decisions," she said.
She also recommended making a personal safety plan around the concert, whether its you or a loved one attending. And she noted drugs and alcohol, which some may turn to in an effort to calm their nerves at at a show, could lead to heightened stress levels.
If you become aware your stress response increases with substance use, "maybe that's a concert you decide not to drink at. Or maybe that's a concert you say 'I'm going to have my drink after the concert,'" she said.
Debra Lee Kaysen, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford, said it's human nature to be fearful after a shocking event like Astroworld.
People are set up to look for threats and danger, she said, noting it's important to recognize that what gets our attention is often the opposite of what happens day-to-day.
"What we tend to be less attentive to are all of the things that are not happening," she said. "Things are newsworthy often when they are bad.
She also advised if someone is feeling scared, they should limit the news coverage they consume about Astroworld; teenagers should avoid scrolling through the coverage on social media too much.
She emphasized: "What does not make the news is there were all of these other concerts where nothing happened."