Travis Scott’s 2021 Astroworld festival ended in tragedy, leaving 10 concertgoers dead after a crowd crush. Now, Scott and promoter Live Nation faced their first set of lawsuits, settling nearly all 10 wrongful death suits.
According to the Associated Press, Live Nation attorney Neal Manne explained durning a hearing that nine of the 10 lawsuits against the entertainment giant and rapper were settled, including the suit filed by the family of 23-year-old Madison Dubiski of Houston, which was set to go to trial this week. Settlement terms were not disclosed due to a gag order.
The one lawsuit that remains is from the family of the youngest concertgoer that died during Astroworld — nine-year-old Ezra Blount. The family’s attorney plans to take the case to trial, the publication reports.
Last month, a judge declined Scott’s motion to dismiss the hundreds of lawsuits stemming from the festival. Several others named in the lawsuit — including Drake and Epic Records — were successfully dismissed, and Scott’s attorneys attempted to follow suit, claiming he was not responsible for safety at the event. Houston Judge Kristen Hawkins issued a one-page order denying Scott’s request that he and his touring company XX Global be dropped from the case.
Th settlements follow bombshell news that organizers had doubts about the festival’s capacity before the event. According to new filings obtained by the Houston Landing, the event’s safety director Seyth Boardman told the festival’s operations director he was worried about cramming so many people in front of the main stage to see Scott perform, noting, “I feel like there is no way we are going to fit 50k in front of that stage.”
Reports also found serious issues with the site plan; an employee of the event production company BWG settled on a site plan that made room for 44,000 people in the general viewing area, plus 3,500 in a VIP area. However, if they had used the correct seven square feet per person standard, they would have known the site plan had capacity for 32,000 people in general admission and 2,500 people in a VIP pen, which marks a whopping 15,500 short of ticketed attendance.
One of the most staggering statements regarding the safety of the festival was made by a festival dispatcher in the command center just minutes before Scott took the stage.
“I would pull the plug but that’s just me,” the dispatcher wrote in a message that was just made public last year. “Someone’s going to end up dead.”
