At least eight people have died with hundreds more injured during Travis Scott’s set at the Astroworld Festival over the weekend.
With over 50,000 fans in attendance and hundreds if not thousands more sneaking in to see La Flame due to lack of security, it created a situation where attendees couldn’t move or breathe during Travis’ performance.
“The crowd for whatever reason began to push and surge towards the front of the stage, which caused the people in the front to be compressed — they were unable to escape that situation,” Houston Fire Chief Sam Peña told CNN. The ages of the victims ranged from as young as 14 to 27.
An investigation is still ongoing about the exact cause of each of the ten deaths and Scott and Live Nation who produced the festival have both issued statements about the tragedy which can be seen below. ScoreMore, the production company that put on Astroworld, has stated that they’ll refund all attendees of Astroworld Festival 2021 and Travis Scott has stated that he’ll cover all funeral costs for the lives lost.
Our hearts go out to the lives lost and hurt at Astroworld Festival 2021.
UPDATE 11/15/21
Nike has indefinitely postponed the release of the Travis Scott x Nike Air Max 1 in “Baroque Brown” and “Saturn Gold” which was scheduled to drop in mid-December. Check out the statement from Nike via the SNKRS app below.
UPDATE 11/18/21
Travis Scott, Drake, Live Nation, Apple Music, and NRG Stadium are being sued for $2 billion dollars on the behalf of the victims of the Astroworld Festival tragedy. San Antonio-based attorney Thomas J. Henry filed the suit against the parties mentioned above on the behalf of 282 victims and another 120 are in talks with the firm to seek his representation for injuries and damages.
“The defendants stood to make an exorbitant amount of money off of this event, and they still chose to cut corners, cut costs, and put attendees at risk,” said Thomas J. Henry. “My clients want to ensure the defendants are held responsible for their actions, and they want to send the message to all performers, event organizers, and promoters that what happened at Astroworld cannot happen again.”
The full press release can be seen here.
UPDATE 12/7/21
Travis Scott has hired attorney Daniel Petrocelli to lead his legal team in the ongoing litigation regarding the tragedy at his Astroworld music festival. Recent reports claim that Travis Scott is requesting that all Astroworld Festival lawsuits be dismissed.
An overview of the filed court documents show that Travis and his attorney are looking to dismiss a claim by Jessie Garcia and all civil lawsuits. Further analysis of the legal actions note that Travis Scott is not claiming any responsibility for any of the deaths or injuries that happened at Astroworld. In hopes to dismiss himself and all affiliated parties, Travis is issuing a “general denial” for the claims against him, which is a legal term that acts as a blanket response to all allegations.
Travis Scott and his legal team maintain the stance that he is not legally liable for critical failures “including inadequate and poorly trained security, deficient coordination between city officials and festival management, and a nearly hour-long delay in halting the show after the danger became apparent.”
If the dismissal is unsuccessful, there is also a motion filed to combine all 275 Astroworld Festival cases into a single “multi-district litigation” case. No official ruling on the motion has been made at this time.
UPDATE 12/10/21
A Houston-based law firm known as Brent Coon & Associates, is requesting $10 billion to resolve more than 1,500 cases filed on behalf of victims that attended the Astroworld music festival. Brent Coon & Associates filed a request to consolidate all the cases involved with the Harris County District Court system. A hearing is scheduled for December 13, 2021.
