The events that occurred during Travis Scott’s Astroworld 2021 are still being uncovered days after the festival was cancelled early. Lives were lost, people were severely injured and many are left still fighting for their lives. A time of celebration of culture, life and music ended in injury, trauma and death.
This is the third time Travis Scott has been arrested for inciting riots and violence at his shows; he is known for encouraging his fans to jump over security fences and promotes this type of rage at his concerts. The advertisement for 2021 Astroworld Festival tickets illustrates some of the violence and rage that occur at these festivities.
After finding that eight people lost their lives, twenty-five people were hospitalized and that hundreds of people were treated on-site leaves a lot of open questions. Lawsuits, claims, medical bills, and funeral costs are starting to add up. Travis Scott, Drake, Live Nation and the Harris County Sports & Convention Corporation are all facing severe lawsuits.
One of Travis Scott’s team representatives released a statement on Monday, Nov. 8 stating that Travis will be covering all funeral costs for his fans that lost their lives at his concert. In addition, Travis will be providing coverage for mental health services for concertgoers who experienced trauma at the festival. As the lawsuits start to rise, Live Nation and other festival promoters have offered full refunds to any attendees who purchased tickets to the 2021 Astroworld Festival. Live Nation has also handed over all surveillance and live footage from the concert over to the authorities for further investigation.
The Astroworld Festival is not the first concert tragedy we have seen in U.S. history. Back in 1979 The Who, a famous English rock band, performed at the Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati, Ohio. This concert was indoor and standing but was staged with a “first come, first serve” philosophy, leading to thousands of fans rushing into the concert and leaving 11 people dead and many more injured. Like Scott, The Who promotes this kind of rage and violence at their concerts. After this disaster, many concert organizers reconsidered the staging at concerts and required seated tickets and aisles.
Many attendees of Astroworld claim it was chaotic all day. However, reports indicate that these tragic events did not occur until 40 minutes before the end of the show and that Travis Scott was never informed of any deaths during his performance.
Robert Crane, personal injury attorney from Dallas pointed out some of the legalities surrounding Astroworld on the iHeart radio Eddie and Rocky podcast. Crane discussed the musicians’ knowledge on the tragedies that were occurring during the concert.
“What is unclear is to what extent the musicians on stage knew about the severity of what was happening,” said Crane. “Travis claimed he didn’t know about any deaths or injuries until he was offstage but, those are things we are gonna learn more and more about in the days to come ... I haven’t seen anything on his part to take actions and steps beyond safety measures that are there.
Travis Scott, Kylie Jenner, Kim Kardashian and other A-list celebrities’ tweets have alluded that Scott had no idea until after the concert there were any fatalities. However, as investigators take a closer look at the recordings from the Astroworld events, more information regarding Travis’s knowledge of the tragedies have been subject to controversy.
As time goes on, more information surrounding the Astroworld Festival 2021, Travis Scott and other musicians' knowledge of the events has continued to come to light. Hopefully, justice will be served where it is needed.
