At least 60 concertgoers at Travis Scott show in Rome on Monday night, August 7, required medical attention for minor eye and throat irritation caused by pepper spray.
Pepper Spray Incident
According to CBS News, a crowd of viewers can be seen rapidly dispersing and then seeking safety on a nearby hill in several videos shared online. Individuals were seen climbing over barriers, and others appeared to be in tears. The event went on without a hitch, as it seemed that the vast majority of attendees were oblivious to the disruption.
Approximately 60,000 people saw Scott perform for the first time in front of his chart-topping Utopia album. Controversial artist Kanye West, known as Ye, also appeared and joined him on stage.
It is fairly unusual for Italian audiences to resort to pepper spray, and in rare cases, this has led to many fatalities. In 2018, pepper spray caused a stampede at a rap concert in central Italy, leading to the deaths of six people and hundreds more injuries.
In a separate case, a 14-year-old who climbed a neighboring hill on Monday night to have a better view of the event ended up falling around 4 meters (about 13 feet) before he was rescued. Because of his wounds, he was brought to the hospital.
Scott's other shows have likewise resulted in disastrous outcomes. At the Astroworld Festival in Scott's hometown of Houston in 2021, ten people were killed and hundreds were wounded due to a crush.
Earthquake Fear During Concert
The event was hosted in the massive archeological site known as the Circus Maximus, where chariot races were previously conducted in ancient Rome. In response to the ground shaking caused by the enthusiastic concertgoers' jumping, Romans who live nearby took to social media to wonder whether an earthquake had broken out.
The Italian National Institute of Geophysics and Vulcanology, which is responsible for measuring earthquake magnitude, said on its official site: "We have received many requests for information from Roman citizens who felt one or more earthquakes after 21:30."
A seismologist from the Institute Giovanni Diaferia said in a social media post on Wednesday, August 9, that the force exerted by concertgoers leaping at each jump was similar to a magnitude 1.3 earthquake, as The New York Times reported.
As the manager of the neighboring Archeological Park of the Coliseum, Alfonsina Russo voiced her disapproval of the event's location. "The Circus Maximus is not a field, it's a monument; it has subterranean galleries, archeological areas. You can't have tens of thousands of people jumping up and down for hours."
Historic landmarks, such as the Colosseum, Roman Forum, and Baths of Caracalla, are conveniently located near the Circus Maximus and its neighboring Palatine Hill Roman remains.
According to Russo, she had expressed her worries to the mayor of Rome about the venue's potential misuse. She recommended that the venue host more tasteful musical performances such as opera and ballet. It was Russo's opinion that rock concerts be hosted in stadiums instead.
