Staff at Astroworld were told to refer to fatalities as ‘Smurfs’

In an alarming finding, staff at Astroworld were instructed to only refer to any dead concertgoers as ‘Smurfs’ in the event of a fatality. 

CNN obtained a packed document containing the safety and emergency response plan for the tragic festival. It told staff how to respond to things like extreme weather, active shooters, terror threats, and other major incidents.

It was something noticed under the section ‘traumatic injury resulting in death’ that was most alarming: the emergency response plan told staff to use the codeword ‘Smurf’ (possibly referring to the iconic 80s cartoon of the same name) when referring to any fatalities. “Never use the term ‘dead’ or ‘deceased’ over the radio,” the plan states.

The document was very limited when it came to discussing “multiple casualty incidents” compared to the detailed pages devoted to things like “severe weather events”.

The former had just one page about it and it didn’t directly explain to staff what they should do in the event of a deadly crowd surge like the one that led to the death of eight people and the injury of hundreds more at Travis Scott’s festival last Friday, November 5th.

Very tellingly, the plan highlighted the huge possibility of fatalities at the event occurring. “Based on the site’s layout and numerous past experiences, the potential for multiple alcohol/drug related incidents, possible evacuation needs, and the ever-present threat of a mass casualty situation are identified as key concerns,” it stated.

It’s not clear if the plan’s advice to use the word ‘Smurf’ to refer to fatalities was actually followed in the aftermath of the deadly crowd surge. The plan also said that the executive producer and festival director were the only people with the authority to stop the concert. Scott had come in for criticism for not doing so himself once the crowd issues started.

“It doesn’t even really appear in what is the equivalent of the Astroworld’s crowd management plan,” Paul Wertheimer, founder and president of Crowd Management Strategies, said to CNN. “There’s no reference to crowd surge, crowd crush, crowd panic.

There’s no reference to the front of the stage and festival seating crowd. And therefore, there’s no specific emergency planning for a mass casualty crowd crush event.”

For more on this topic, follow the Live Music Observer.

From the Astroworld Event Operations Plan: The staff was instructed to refer to dead concertgoers as “Smurfs”. pic.twitter.com/QAuv3eqK18

— Mike Sington (@MikeSington) November 9, 2021

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