After the Astroworld tragedy on November 5, 2021, Texas Governor Greg Abbott convened a multi-disciplinary task force through the Governor’s Texas Music Office led by TMO Director Brendon Anthony to investigate Astroworld, determine guidelines on concert safety standards and practices, and create an online event production guide readily available to both the general public and concert promoters.

Faced with the grim outcome of the Astroworld debacle, these resources will no doubt become part of the expectations of insurance carriers and touring artists as well as lawmakers at the federal, state and local levels. You don’t have to try very hard to imagine a world in which the TMO Report becomes the industry standard for concert safety–which should be the cornerstone of event planning particularly in the music business which brings the equivalent of small cities together for concerts.

I strongly commend the TMO report to you and if you’re an artist, promoter, venue operator or fan in the concert business, take some time to read it slowly and study the findings. I challenge everyone to approach the Report in a self-critical way to ask what could I do better to save lives? As the report says, the best surprise is no surprise. Logistics are everything.

Read the report here and find the Event Production Guide here.