Travis Scott alogside surprise guest Drake are being sued for inciting the crowd while festival producer Live Nation failed to provide adequate safety measures. 50,000 ticketholders are set to receive refunds after at least eight attendees were killed and hundreds more injured. Travis Scott has canceled his performance for this weekend’s Day N Vegas Festival. Festive Owl reports Travis Scott is being removed from many 2022 lineups, and no event has indicated any interest in booking him again. There is currently a petition to remove Travis Scott from the Coachella 2022 lineup.
Before Travis Scott took to stage Friday, Houston’s police chief had a meeting with him to discuss safety concerns.
“I met with Travis Scott and his head of security for a few moments last Friday prior to the main event,”
“I expressed my concerns regarding public safety and that in my 31 years of law enforcement experience I have never seen a time with more challenges facing citizens,” including a pandemic and nationwide social tension, Finner said.
“I asked Travis Scott and his team to work with HPD for all events over the weekend and to be mindful of his team’s social media messaging on any unscheduled events.” (Reported by the New York Times)
Travis Scott, Drake, and Live Nation are being sued by concertgoers over crowd surge at Astroworld. The criminal investigation could hold Travis Scott responsible if he saw something that was happening and did not stop the show. Scott stopped the show three times to help audience members. Determining what Scott knew about the situation and whether he acted appropriately will be an important part of the investigation.
The official cause of death for the individuals killed at Astroworld has not been released yet. As Travis Scott took to stage and the crowds became more tightly packed together and began to push and surge forward. Compressive forces can prevent you from breathing and a domino effect can easily happen when one person falls. Attendees report layers of people were stacked on top of each other and were being stepped as screams for help were muffled by the speakers.
This year Astroworld did increase their security with 500 Houston police officer and more than 700 private security personnel. A contingency plan for surging crowds was not part of the operations plan. the plan does lay out a clear chain of command with the executive producer and festival director as the only individuals with the authority to stop the concert.
EDM festival culture has had its own fare share of disasters and loss of life. We’ve come a long way and learned from our experiences and tragic losses. What makes Astroworld stand out to me is the lack of urgency by their staff to help the attendees and communicate the issues to those higher up in the chain to stop the show. This lawsuit will come down to who had knowledge of these incidents and did nothing.
If you wish to support the families of the attendees who lost their life, please click here for the GoFundMe.