UPDATE: 11 Astroworld attendees file lawsuits against Travis Scott
The lawsuits come after a crowd surge at Travis Scott's headlining set left eight dead and dozens injured
On Friday night, eight people died and dozens were left severely injured after a crowd surge at Astroworld during founder Travis Scott’s headlining set. Now, Scott is facing two lawsuits filed by Astroworld attendees.
One of them is from Manuel Souza, who filed a lawsuit against promoter Live Nation and organizer ScoreMore, in addition to Scott.
Billboard reports that in a petition filed on Saturday—a day after the festival—Souza alleges that the defendants “consciously ignored the extreme risks of harm to concertgoers, and, in some cases actively encouraged and fomented dangerous behaviors.”
Souza claims the event’s organizers ignored alarming moments before Scott’s headlining performance, including an incident (caught in a now-viral video) where “concertgoers breached a security gate around the park, stampeded into the premises, and trampled over one another.” He also says that this behavior has “long been encouraged by the festival’s founder and main performer [Travis Scott].”
Souza is seeking “at least $1 million in damages” and his attorneys requested a temporary restraining order “preventing any destruction of evidence, which could be heard in court as soon as Monday.”
The Daily Mail also reports that another attendee named Kristian Paredes filed a complaint, suing Travis Scott, guest performer Drake, Live Nation, and Harris County Sports And Convention Corporation for negligence. In this suit, Paredes alleges that Drake helped “incite the crowd.”
According to Paredes’ account of what happened, he felt an “immediate push” while standing in the front of the general admission section, then “the crowd became chaotic and a stampede began leaving eight dead and dozens including [Paredes] severely injured.”
“There is every indication that the performers, organizers, and venue were not only aware of the hectic crowd but also that injuries and potential deaths may have occurred,” wrote Paredes’ attorney Thomas J. Henry in the suit. “Still, they decided to put profits over their attendees and allowed the deadly show to go on.”
Rolling Stone and The Houston Chronicle also reported that a third person, Cristian Guzman, filed a lawsuit against Live Nation and NRG Park. He filed a request for a restraining order to be issued that would stop Live Nation from “damaging, modifying, altering, selling or disposing of any evidence of negligence at NRG Park during the Astroworld Fest 2021 on the night of Nov. 5 and the morning of Nov. 6, 2021.”
Guzman is also seeking more than $1 million in damages, claiming that Live Nation and NRG Park did not “control and supervise the crowd at the event.” He alleges that he was “pushed to the ground and trampled,” resulting in a “significant back injury.”
UPDATE: 11/08 2:15 P.M CST.: Rolling Stone reports that Astroworld was hit with fourteen lawsuits; eleven of those name Travis Scott as a defendant. The new nine plaintiffs are all represented by the same lawyer, Sean A. Roberts.