A petition to stop Travis Scott from taking the stage at next year’s Coachella Festival has attracted thousands of supporters in the wake of Friday’s deadly Astroworld crowd crush.
Music lover Sendero Secretos has started a Change.org petition to block the star from appearing at Coachella in April and in the petition’s outline, Secretos alleges the “tragic and unnecessary deaths” at Astroworld occurred “due to Scott’s own gross negligence and sheer lack of compassion for human life.”
The petition is addressed to Coachella’s official organizers, AEG, Paul Tollet and Goldenvoice, who have not publicly responded.
Scott, 30, is under heavy fire after eight people were killed at the Astroworld event in Houston amid a stampede. Fans were heard and seen calling for help after Scott took center stage, but the rapper continued performing for more than 30 minutes, completing his set, as Breitbart News reported.
The eight victims of the tragedy have been identified as Danish Baig, 27; Madison Dubiski, 23; Rudy Peña, 23; Jake Jurinek, 20; Franco Patino, 21; Axel Acosta, 21; Brianna Rodriguez, 16; and John Hilgert, 14.
Officials said the deadly crush began as “the crowd began to compress towards the front of the stage” around 9:00 pm when Travis Scott was performing. There were around 50,000 people in the audience at Houston’s NRG Park as the show began.
“That caused some panic and it started causing some injuries, people began to fall out, become unconscious and it created additional panic,” Houston fire chief Samuel Pena said at a press conference after the event.
Bryanna Morales, 17, shows a video of the accident at a makeshift memorial on November 7, 2021 at the NRG Park grounds where people 8 died in crowd surge at Astroworld Festival in Houston, Texas. (THOMAS SHEA/AFP via Getty Images)
“We had at least eight confirmed fatalities tonight and scores of individuals that were injured,” he said, adding the cause of death could not be confirmed until after medical exams were completed.
The rapper has previously likened his live performances to professional wrestling, telling GQ as far back as 2015 he does not like his crowds to just stand around and gawk.
“I always want to make it feel like it’s the WWF or some s – – t,” Scott stated. “You know, raging and having fun and expressing good feelings is something I plan on doing and spreading across the globe.”
Houston’s police department is leading the criminal investigation into how the deadly chaos erupted while AP reports a prominent local official is calling for a separate, independent review of the tragedy.