Astroworld Tragedy Brings New Safety Measure for NRG Park Events

For the first time since its creation, the City of Houston-Harris County Special Events Task Force unveiled an updated management agreement on tackling large-scale events. The new protocols cover NRG Park events – where the fatal Astroworld took place – with at least 6,000 attendees and aim to provide recommendations on public safety measures.

Live music events that will take over the Houston stadium will be required to submit a medical plan, a security plan, and an occupancy request that need to be approved by the authorities. 

There will also be a new requirement for crowd management to avoid over-concentration of people in one area. 

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said that although those protocols weren’t absent in the first place, they “weren’t as aligned as they needed to be.” 

“And when there’s no alignment, there’s confusion. And when there’s confusion, there’s hesitancy and when there’s hesitancy, bad things can happen.”

In February, the task force was created to improve communication, permitting requirements, and safety benchmarks in the aftermath of the Astroworld fiasco, where 10 people died in a crowd surge. 

Houston is preparing to host major events at NRG Park, like the NCAA Men’s Final Four in April 2023 and the FIFA World Cup in 2026.