by In August 2018, rapper Travis Scott released his third studio album astroworldwith the memorable artwork depicting a giant golden inflatable boat from Travis’ head as the entrance to an amusement park.
And six months later, this theme was used for his daughter Stormi’s first birthday party.
Travis shares Stormi with Kylie Jenner, and the pair created “Stormiworld” for the lavish celebration, complete with a giant inflatable of Stormi’s head in apparent homage to the astroworld album cover.
The concept was revised for Stormi’s second and third birthday celebrations. But in 2021, astroworld was tainted after tragedy at Travis’ festival of the same name.
The Astroworld Festival was created the same year as Travis’ album, with the artwork’s giant head being a prominent feature of the event. The festival also ran in 2019 but was canceled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
As such, fans were thrilled when it was announced that the festival would be returning to Houston, Texas in November 2021. However, the event ended in heartbreak when a crowd resulted in the deaths of 10 people, including a 9-year-old boy.
Hundreds more were injured during Travis’ headlining performance at the Astroworld Festival on November 5, 2021, and Travis – famous for encouraging fans to “go wild” at his concerts – has been accused of “agitating the crowd”.
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 have claimed that Travis was unaware of the severity of the crowd, and the rapper has also denied legal responsibility for the deaths and injuries.
He and Kylie faced repeated backlash for their response in the wake of the tragedy, with Travis seemingly implying the media misplaced the blame on him when he first discussed the event in December 2021.
Then, in February, people said that Travis was “incredibly abusive” to the victims’ families after he was caught liking Kanye West’s Instagram post urging Billie Eilish to apologize for causing her interrupted her concert to check if her fans were okay because it had sparked comparisons to Travis’ behavior at his shows.
And in August, Kylie was accused of “disrespecting the victims of Astroworld” after posting an “insensitive” and “disrespectful” video of Travis “raging” backstage during a performance.
The Kardashian/Jenners have also come under fire for their lack of response to the Astroworld tragedy in general, even being discovered to have orchestrated a completely fake storyline in Season 1 of The Kardashians just to avoid references.
Despite those missteps, Kylie and Travis skipped Stormiworld in 2022, and her daughter instead threw a party with her cousin Chicago in her mom’s backyard.
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 seems it may have been Kylie’s pregnancy that stopped her from casting Stormiworld last year – not her association with the deaths of 10 people, like that astroworld-thematic 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 “Stormiworld” wasn’t explicitly mentioned in any of Kylie’s social media posts, fans were horrified to see the giant head repurposed.
The mouth of the inflatable Stormi head not only served as a backdrop for some slides, but was also used again as the entrance to the party – just like the one astroworld artwork.
Many people were outraged that Kylie continued to link her little girl’s birthday to such a devastating tragedy, and the star was branded as “tasteless” and “callous” when her actions were discussed online.
In a Reddit forum, one person wrote of the Stormiworld boss’s comeback: “If it were me I would have destroyed any reference to Astroworld but that’s just me.”
Someone else agreed: “Isn’t that distasteful after the Astroworld tragedy… where children died…”
Another Reddit user asked, “Stormi and Aire’s Astroworld birthday is reason enough to cancel them. 10 people died because of the Astroworld festival, including a 9-year-old little boy. Is this a joke ?”
Another replied: “This makes me angry at the demolition level. How callous and deaf and clueless a family can be. Jesus. 🤬”
Another commented, “You are mocking the victims at this point.”
And another concluded: “I cannot believe such contempt for lost lives.”
Kylie hasn’t acknowledged the backlash at Stormi’s party, and BuzzFeed News has reached out to her rep for comment.
This isn’t the first time Stormiworld has sparked controversy, with Kylie also coming under fire for hosting the event in February 2021 – and flouting numerous official COVID-19 restrictions.
Kylie said at the time that “Stormiworld 3 is being canceled for obvious reasons,” but added that she “still gave it my all” and threw a party with Stormi’s cousins and family members instead.
At the time, Stormi had nine cousins along with her eight aunts and uncles on Kylie’s side alone. And judging by social media posts from the event, friends and members of Travis’ family were also in attendance.
This violated numerous parts of Los Angeles’ stay-at-home order, which strictly prohibited private gatherings involving more than three different households.
This was because California was placed in the extreme risk category at the time following a spike in COVID-19 cases.
The order also said all private gatherings should be held outdoors, but online posts proved the majority of Stormi’s 2021 birthday celebration was held indoors.
