Nine of 10 wrongful death lawsuits filed after a deadly crowd surge at the 2021 Astroworld music festival were settled, including one that was set to go to trial from Tuesday, the Associated Press reported.
The one wrongful death lawsuit still pending was filed by the family of 9-year-old Ezra Blount, the youngest person killed during the concert. Attorneys in the litigation were set to meet next week to discuss when the lawsuit filed by Blount’s family could be scheduled for trial.
But Neal Manne, an attorney for Live Nation, the festival’s promoter, said he and the lawyers for other defendants being sued were not ready.
What happened at Astroworld 2021?
On 5 November, 2021, a stampede of fans during rap star Travis Scott‘s Astroworld Festival killed 10 people between the ages of nine and 27 and injured scores. Among the deceased was Bharti Shahani, a Texas A&M University computer science student hailing from India.
Travis Scott's performance at NRG Park began at 9.02 pm and just five minutes later the first 911 call reported distress in the crowd. By 9.18 pm, groups jumped the fence even as injuries were reported. The Houston Police Department was informed that multiple people were entering the medical tent and many others had fallen unconscious at the front stage.
In a bid to stop the show, attendees climbed a camera platform. At 9.38 pm, the first victim of the crowd surge was taken to the hospital from the medical tent while others were being given CPR. A minute later, the "show stop" procedure was commenced followed by the show being declared a "mass casualty incident" by 9.47 pm. It was only by 10.12 pm that the show ended.
A task force formed by Texas Governor Greg Abbott in April 2022 reported that people without tickets entered the outdoor festival area hours before the performances began, overwhelming staff and leading to a variety of injuries.
Mike Barrow, the lead detective in the case, said the key reason behind the deaths was the overpopulation in general admission, ABC13 reported.
A warning ignored?
A nearly 1,300-page report on the investigation into the tragedy released by Houston police said contract worker Reece Wheeler told authorities that he saw a crush of people and warned an event organizer that people could die, shortly before rapper Travis Scott went onstage.
In the report, investigators wrote that Scott said he did see one person near the stage getting medical attention, but said that overall, the crowd seemed to enjoy the show. He said he did not see any sign of serious problems, nor did he hear anyone tell him to stop the show.
The police report said Scott told investigators that around the time hip-hop artist Drake came onstage, he was told to end the show after the performance, but that no one told him of an emergency.
No indictment for Travis Scott
In June last year, a Texas grand jury declined to indict six people in the case, including Scott. Prosecutors said, then, that the circumstances of the deaths limited what charges they were able to present, eliminating potential counts such as murder, manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide.
Scott’s lawyer, Kent Schaffer, has said that the performer was not responsible for the tragedy. “He never encouraged people to do anything that resulted in other people being hurt,” Schaffer said.
He has since created what he called Project HEAL, a $5 million initiative that includes funding for an effort to address safety challenges for festivals and large-scale events.
Assistant Harris County District Attorney Alycia Harvey said after the grand jury declined to issue indictments that prosecutors were left with only possible counts of endangering a child in connection with the deaths of the two youngest concert-goers, aged 9 and 14.
More than 4,000 plaintiffs filed hundreds of lawsuits after the concert. Manne said about 2,400 injury cases remain pending.
File photo of a memorial to the victims of the Astroworld concert in Houston on Nov. 7, 2021. (AP)
Scott infamous for whipping fans into frenzy
Scott is infamous for encouraging fans to ignore security and crowd surf and stage dive in the mosh pit below him. A commercial for the 2021 Astroworld event, since removed from YouTube, showed fans breaking through barricades and storming the concert grounds at the 2019 event.
In 2015, Chicago officials said Scott encouraged fans at the Lollapalooza music festival to vault security barricades. The rapper was sentenced to one year of court supervision after pleading guilty to reckless conduct charges.
In 2017, Scott was arrested after he encouraged fans to bypass security and rush the stage during a concert in Arkansas, leaving a security guard, a police officer and several others injured. Scott faced several misdemeanour charges, including inciting a riot. He pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct and paid a fine.
Scott is also being sued by a concertgoer who says he was partially paralysed when he was pushed from a third-floor balcony at a New York City concert in 2017, an incident the man says happened after Scott encouraged people to jump.
How the incident impacted future concerts
Post Astroworld, attention on safety protocol at concerts increased manifold, a must given that it is these tours that comprise 75 per cent of the income of the world’s richest artists, according to The Guardian. A reputation of lack of safety would bring in the way plummeting ticket sales, increased security costs and administrative hurdles.
The role of artists in ensuring calm and safety became evident when Billie Eilish paused her show in order to get a fan an inhaler. While Doja Cat paused her show to allow security to iron out an issue at Lollapalooza Argentina, Adele repeatedly stopped her Hyde Park show to help overheating attendees.
Pharrell Williams, Harry Styles, Slipknot, Ed Sheeran, John Mayer and Lady Gaga are among other artists who played their part in ensuring crowd control.
With inputs from agencies
