Rappers Travis Scott and Drake, as well as the venue and entertainment company Live Nation, are being sued by concertgoers who say they were injured on Friday at the Astroworld Music Festival in Houston, Texas, where at least eight people were killed.
At least three lawsuits have been filed on behalf of people who say they were wounded at the music festival, with two of the suits seeking $1 million in damages, according to a report by CBS News.
A crush caused by a crowd surge during Scott’s performance killed at least eight people and injured several others. Officials said the crush began as “the crowd began to compress towards the front of the stage” at around 9:00 p.m. There were about 50,000 people in the audience at Houston’s NRG Park.
Travis Scott performs during the Astroworld Festival at NRG Stadium on November 9, 2019 in Houston, Texas. (SUZANNE CORDEIRO/AFP via Getty Images)
One of the lawsuits seeking $1 million in damages reportedly accuses Scott and Drake of negligently inciting “a riot and violence.” The suit also claims Live Nation failed to provide adequate security and medical services at Astroworld.
The suit goes on to claim that Scott, who founded the music festival in 2018, “had incited mayhem and chaos at prior events,” and says the other defendants didn’t take steps to prevent that behavior.
Seventeen years old local high School friends who attended the Travis Scott concert, Isaac Hernandez and Matthias Coronel watch Jesus Martinez sign a remembrance board at a makeshift memorial on November 7, 2021 at the NRG Park grounds where eight people died in a crowd surge at the Astroworld Festival in Houston, Texas. THOMAS SHEA/AFP via Getty Images)
While the lawsuit did not provide any examples of such conduct, Scott was charged in 2017 for encouraging fans to rush a stage. The rapper’s performances are known for being chaotic and fun-filled shows with concertgoers encouraged to take part in an unruly nature involving mosh pits, crowd surfing, and stage diving.
The lawsuit also reportedly claims that Drake, who appeared as a surprise performer, “helped incite the crowd even though he knew of [Scott’s] prior conduct,” and “continued to perform on stage while the crowd mayhem continued.”
In a tweet posted Saturday, Scott said he was “absolutely devastated by what took place.” He pledged to work “together with the Houston community to heal and support the families in need.”
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Another lawsuit — against Scott, Live Nation, and concert promoter Scoremore — seeking $1 million in damages claims a concertgoer “suffered serious bodily injuries when the uncontrolled crowd at the concert knocked him to the ground and trampled him.”
The Plaintiff’s injuries, the lawsuit says, “were the inevitable and predictable result of [the] defendants’ conscious disregard of the extreme risks of harm to concertgoers that had been escalating since hours earlier.”
“Eventually, due to [the] defendants’ active decision to let the show go on, the scene devolved into a complete melee, resulting in the needless, untimely death of at least 8 people and injuries to scores of others,” the suit adds.
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
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