Music venues ‘confident’ Houston mayhem will not happen in Louisville

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) - As the fallout continues over Houston rapper Travis Scott’s deadly AstroWorld music festival, security experts across the country believe the footage shows the crowd was allowed to grow too dense and was not managed properly.

In AstroWorld’s wake, WAVE 3 News reached out to the five venues that are scheduled to host Jack Harlow’s upcoming No Place Like Home shows in Louisville.

Eric Spears, the head of security at Paristown Hall, told WAVE 3 News he’s confident what happened in Houston will not happen in Louisville. Spears said he has worked in security for 30 years and said Scott’s show in Houston served as a reminder of how quickly a crowd can become out of control.

“It’s scary and seconds can seem like minutes, but we try to put enough people in the house to keep eyes looking at everything,” Spears said.

Spears said over the years, he learned where to put those eyes to get the best view of the 2,000-person-capacity crowd. He said some will watch from the balcony, while others will watch from the barricades in front of the stage. He also said if worse comes to worst, his team can pull the plug on the entire show.

“We can engage our radios and completely cut out the show’s audio and stop the event, bring the house lights up and deal with any emergencies that are on site,” Spears said.

Spears also said he has worked two other sold-out Harlow concerts back in 2019, which gives him a better idea of who will be in the crowd and what type of energy they will bring to the venue.

“We will not allow people to run in to the venue,” Spears said. “They’re definitely not going to be able to run through security. Even if that means we’re going to hold up the show, that’s just something we will not allow.”

At Zanzabar, security will be much less of an issue when Harlow comes to town. Owner Antz Wettig told WAVE 3 News Harlow plans to bring his own security and traffic teams for his VIP show at the bar on Dec. 16.

“I think [AstroWorld] concerned everyone,” Wettig said. “It was super scary. Just seeing the news I was blown away. As far as we go, we have a really tight security team and it should be pretty locked down over here.”

Harlow’s first No Place Like Home show is set for Dec. 14 at the Louisville Palace Theater.

Communications representatives for the Palace and Mercury Ballroom did not return WAVE 3 News’ request for comment. Headliners Music Hall is closed on Mondays and was not available for comment.

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