The Atlantic

The Bleak Lessons of the Astroworld Nightmare

Concert catastrophes aren’t an inevitable side effect of mass gatherings, but the result of specific and often avoidable failures.
Source: Jamaal Ellis / Houston Chronicle / AP

Updated at 9:35 a.m. ET on Thursday, November 11, 2021

Early in the summer, when so many people felt giddy about getting back together, I was jolted with dread for the gatherings to come. The cause was an HBO documentary about the Woodstock ’99 , which resulted in destructive infernos, reported sexual assaults, and three deaths. The film portrayed that catastrophe as both a product of its times—the dreams of the ’90s gone rotten—and an example of industry figures skimping on safety for a profit. After more than a year without many huge concerts, the history lesson felt like a warning of what might happen when they returned in earnest: that many people might act especially recklessly, and many

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