On Monday evening, tens of thousands of people, especially girls and boys, attended a concert by American rapper Travis Scott at the Circus Maximus in Rome, a vast public space that during Roman times was home to running races and public games. The concert had only been announced a few days before, but was highly attended, with some estimates of 55,000 attending, but higher numbers are circulating. In the first hours after the concert, this was mainly due to the unexpected appearance of the famous rapper and musician Kanye West, who had not performed live for about a year. But then there were disagreements about the organization of the entire event, which are talked about a lot on social networks and in newspapers.
Travis Scott is 32 years old and one of the most popular rappers in the world. He was born in Houston and began collaborating with West in 2012, having already made a name for himself with his debut album. Rodeosince 2015. His latest album Utopia, was released at the end of July but has already racked up tens of millions of views on major streaming platforms. Over the years, Scott has also established himself with a certain “punk” nature to his concerts, which are characterized by a lot of people jumping and moshing (mosh pit) or stage immersion in the audience. As with the concert in Rome, Scott’s audience is predominantly made up of girls and boys.
Even on Monday evening there were some exciting moments of collective dancing and a lot of confusion. The most dangerous, however, did not depend on Scott’s music: according to various spectators, shortly after the concert began, someone sprayed pepper spray in one of the sectors of the Circus Maximus, causing moments of great excitement. Videos circulating on social media show several people climbing over a barrier to escape from an area where the spray appeared to have been sprayed. Tomorrow he writes that “the situation calmed down only when these spectators took refuge on the hill of the Circus Maximus, which was theoretically closed to the public for security reasons.” Altogether, there appear to have been about sixty people treated on the spot for diseases of the eyes and throat.
Several people complained that the entry controls were very perfunctory and that it would not be difficult to bring in pepper spray cans, which had been used frequently in Italy at big concerts for several years, probably to take advantage of the confusion and confusion. commit petty robberies. In 2018, it was from this situation that a mob formed that caused the death of six people at a disco in Corinaldo, Marche region, during a concert by rapper Sphere Ebbast. Last year, people who sprayed poisonous aerosols always caused a huge crowd in Piazza San Carlo in Turin during the screening of the Champions League final: two women were crushed, one died a few days later, and the other two years later.
A message appeared on Instagram and Twitter, written by a person who was present at the concert, claiming that checks “did not exist” and that “security” only dealt with extracting bottle caps. “I was also in the area where the canister was fired, I immediately remembered the inspector at the entrance, who slightly touched my backpack, and then let me through. I could have had a gun and he wouldn’t have heard it,” another person who happened to be at the concert commented on Instagram.
Here’s what else happened at Travis Scott’s circus maximus concert, because no one will probably talk about it #TravisScott #Circus Maximus pic.twitter.com/UPpB0OfhZR
— Michelangelo Annunziato🍂 (@metota_) August 7, 2023
Scrupulously checking the bags, backpacks and fanny packs of tens of thousands of people is difficult, and without a mass deployment of personnel, this leads to very long queues at the entrance with consequences for the entire organization of the event. Even before the concert, Rome’s police department staged stricter checks than usual: the red zone, that is, closed to those who do not have tickets, was doubled compared to similar events, and the presence of more than 1,200 stewards and 400 law enforcement officers, including police , carabinieri and financial police.
The concert organizers made it clear that such a massive presence of police and stewards prevented the unpleasant consequences of the riots that occurred shortly after the concert began. “The evening was at its best thanks to the coordination and collaboration between institutions, law enforcement and Live Nation organizers, with the support of local promoter The Base. The well-coordinated and joint work has led to the fact that even those moments of tension that occurred last night due to the fault of a few irresponsible people and which could turn into potential danger were resolved in the best possible way with professionalism and timeliness and prevented thanks to the perfect organizational machine and security in place”, the statement says.
No less than sixty thousand people in the Circus Maximus for Travis Scott. The Texas rapper makes Rome shake and many people think about the earthquake. For the first time, songs from his new album Utopia are being played live. pic.twitter.com/qw5dECvTN1
— Tg3 (@Tg3web) August 8, 2023
However, Meloni’s government deputy minister of culture, Vittorio Sgarbi, hoped for “strong security controls and adequate sanctions for those who do not comply with the established rules” for mass events of this type, especially at the Circus Maximus. “We need to expect and be confident in how these concerts will be organized, starting with guaranteeing the safety of the venue and the audience,” Sgarbi said.
Sgarbi, along with many others, also provided the opportunity to host such an event at a location such as the Circus Maximus, located in the heart of the city and in the middle of the archaeological site.
On Monday night, the vibrations produced by Scott’s sound system were so strong that they “shaked the ground, set off alarms on parked cars, shook the windows of buildings in the neighborhood,” wrote music journalist Mattia Marzi on Rokol. Added to this was the movement of thousands of people dancing: several people on social networks thought that there was an earthquake, which, moreover, happens quite often at crowded concerts taking place near settlements (if someone was talking a few weeks ago about Taylor Swift concert in Seattle ).
Earthquake in Rome? No… it’s Travis Scott in concert at Circus Maximus https://t.co/cOAwCO7zmF
— INGVterremoti (@INGVterremoti) August 8, 2023
However, the Circus Maximus is not a place like any other, and from time to time there is a renewed debate in Rome about its use for large events. After the Scott Alfonsine concert, Rousseau, director of the Colosseum Archaeological Park, issued a press release saying that “The Circus Maximus is not a lawn, it is a monument: it has underground galleries, archaeological parts, you can’t jump on it for hours, tens of thousands “. Rousseau added that in the future, “given what has happened, and also in relation to public safety, as well as the preservation and protection of the archaeological heritage, we will have a negative attitude towards such events.”
The logistics of control are also complicated by the fact that the Circus Maximus was not designed to hold large modern events: on Monday, a 14-year-old boy who tried to pass without a ticket fell from a height of four meters. To extract it, the intervention of firefighters was required (the boy was injured, but not in serious condition).
Mariano Angelucci of the Democratic Party, President of the Commission for Tourism and Major Events of the Municipality of Rome, responded to Rousseau: “We have great respect for the history of our extraordinary city, our thousand-year-old monuments and the Circus Maximus, which is preserved and cared for. at best, but we think we should look to the present and the future, and it’s great that 60,000 young people enjoyed feeling a little more in Rome than they did yesterday. We are happy about it.”