In August 2018, rapper Travis Scott released his third studio album Astromondewith the memorable artwork featuring a giant golden inflatable of Travis’ head as the entrance to an amusement park.
And six months later, that theme was used for her daughter, Stormi’s first birthday.
Travis shares Stormi with Kylie Jenner, and the pair created “Stormiworld” for the lavish celebration, complete with a giant inflatable of Stormi’s head as an obvious homage to the Astromonde album cover.
The concept was revisited for Stormi’s second and third birthdays. But in 2021, Astromonde was tainted following a tragedy at the Travis festival of the same name.
The Astroworld festival was launched the same year as Travis’ album, with the artwork’s giant head a standout feature of the event. The festival also took place in 2019, but it was canceled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Fans were therefore thrilled when it was announced that the festival would return to Houston in November 2021. However, the event ended in heartbreak when a surge of crowds resulted in the deaths of 10 people, including one 9 year old boy.
Hundreds more were injured during Travis’ showpiece performance at the Astroworld Festival, which took place on November 5, 2021, and Travis – who is famous for encouraging fans to “rage” at his concerts – has was accused of “inciting the mob”.
It was also reported that Travis continued to perform for 37 minutes after the festival was declared a mass casualty incident.
But sources close to the rapper maintained that Travis was unaware of the severity of the influx of crowds, and the rapper also denied any legal responsibility for the dead and injured.
He and Kylie faced repeated backlash for their response after the tragedy, with Travis appearing to suggest the media unfairly blamed him when he first discussed the event in December 2021.
Then in February, people said Travis was “incredibly offensive” to the families of the victims after he was caught liking Kanye West’s Instagram post asking Billie Eilish to apologize for interrupting his concert. to check that his fans were okay, as it had drawn comparisons to Travis’ behavior at his concerts.
And in August, Kylie was accused of having “no respect for the victims of Astroworld” after posting an “insensitive” and “disrespectful” video of Travis “raging” backstage at a concert.
The Kardashians/Jenners have also come under fire for their lack of response to the Astroworld tragedy more generally, they were even discovered to have orchestrated an entirely bogus storyline in season 1 of The Kardashians just to avoid referring to it.
Despite these missteps, Kylie and Travis skipped “Stormiworld” in 2022, with their daughter instead having a joint party in her mom’s backyard with her cousin, Chicago, instead.
The famous “Stormiworld” head was not used for the event, which took place when Kylie was heavily pregnant with her son, Aire, who was born the day after Stormi’s 4th birthday.
But it looks like it may have been Kylie’s pregnancy that kept her from launching ‘Stormiworld’ last year – not her association with the deaths of 10 people, as the Astromonde-themed head was back in full force this week.
Kylie threw an “It Takes Two” birthday party for Stormi and Aire on Wednesday, complete with merchandise and fun activities for the kids.
And while there’s no explicit mention of “Stormiworld” in any of Kylie’s social media posts, fans were horrified to see the giant head being used again.
In addition to being the backdrop for some slides, Stormi’s bouncy head mouth once again served as the party’s entrance – just as it appears on the Astromonde masterpieces.
Many have been outraged that Kylie continues to associate her baby girl’s birthday with such a devastating tragedy, and the star has been called ‘tasteless’ and ‘insensitive’ as her actions were discussed online .
Writing on a Reddit forum, one person said of the return of the ‘Stormiworld’ head: “If it was me, I would have destroyed any hint of Astroworld, but that’s just me.”
Someone else agreed, “Isn’t it tasteless after the Astroworld tragedy…..where children died…”
Another Reddit user asked, “Stormi and Aire’s Astroworld themed birthday is reason enough to cancel them. 10 people died because of the Astroworld festival, including a 9-year-old boy. Is this a prank?”
Another replied: “It drives me crazy at the level of the cancellation. How insensitive, deaf and oblivious a family can be. Jesus. 🤬”
Someone else commented: “They don’t care about casualties at this point.”
And another concluded: “I can’t believe such disregard for human life is lost.”
Kylie didn’t acknowledge the backlash from Stormi’s party, and BuzzFeed News reached out to her rep for comment.
It’s not the first time ‘Stormiworld’ has sparked controversy, with Kylie also coming under fire when she hosted the event in February 2021 – breaking many official COVID-19 restrictions.
Kylie said at the time that “Stormiworld 3 is canceled for obvious reasons”, but added that she “still did everything” and threw a party with Stormi’s cousins and family members. in place.
At the time, Stormi had nine cousins on Kylie’s side alone, as well as eight aunts and uncles. And judging by social media posts from the event, friends and family of Travis were also in attendance.
It violated many parts of Los Angeles’ stay-at-home order, which strictly prohibited private gatherings involving more than three different households.
This was due to California being placed in the “extreme risk” category following an increase in COVID-19 cases at that time.
The order also stated that all private gatherings were to take place outdoors, but online posts proved the majority of Stormi’s 2021 birthday celebration took place indoors.