After almost three years since the crowd crush at Travis Scott's Astroworld Festival resulted in the deaths of 10 attendees, events promoter Live Nation settled nine out of the 10 wrongful death cases filed, Variety reported.
The news about the settlements came after one of the lawsuits is set for trial this week. According the Associated Press, jury selection was supposed to start on Tuesday for the case filed by 23-year-old Madison Dubiski's family.
Astroworld settlements
Last month, The Wall Street Journal reported that the Justice Department is preparing to file a lawsuit against Live Nation for antitrust violations. The case alleged that the promoter “has leveraged its dominance in a way that undermined competition for ticketing events.” This supposedly created a monopolistic environment.
The company's lawyer Neal Manne said during the hearing Wednesday that nine of the cases against Live Nation and Scott has been settled, which includes Dubiski's. A gag order is in place so details regarding the settlement were not disclosed.
The remaining lawsuit is from nine-year-old Ezra Blount's family. He was the youngest individual to die in the tragic event. The Blount family attorney stated that they want the case to go to trial.
Scott's Astroworld Festival was on Nov. 5, 2021 at the NRG Park in Houston, Texas. Thousands were injured when the overcapacity crowd surged to the front of the stage when Scott began his performance. Ten people died, ages nine to 27, due to compressive asphyxiation.
Several audience members, and those who saw the video online, accused the rapper and Drake of being insensitive as they continued to perform even though “lifeless bodies” were being “passed through the crowd in full view of the stage.”
Even the Houston fire chief said that Scott should have stopped the show much earlier than he did.
Eight people died at the concert, while two more passed away in the hospitals. After the tragic event, over 4,000 attendees sued both Scott and Live Nation. There are 2,400 injury lawsuits pending.
The case of Travis Scott's delayed response
In his interview with GQ, Scott explained to the police two days after the event that he only got a sense that something seriously wrong had happened after he was told that someone was being administered CPR. And only after the next few hours did he realize the full horror of what had actually happened.
The criticisms levied against Scott were made worse because he gave a public statement on his social media accounts days after the tragedy. He gave a prepared statement where he said he was “devastated” and promised his “total” support to the Houston Police Department. The police described the incident as a “mass casualty incident.”
However, during the litigation last year, Scott's mobile “fell off a boat” when authorities were trying to obtain his phone records to ascertain accountability.
The BBC reported that in Scott's Instagram live, he addressed the situation by saying that had he known how bad the situation had gotten, he would have paused the concert.
“Anytime I can make out anything that's going on, you know, I stop the show and you know, help them get the help they need. I could just never imagine the severity of the situation,” he said in the video.
While there have been nine settlements so far, the family of one concertgoer hasn't and their lawyer has expressed their desire to take the case to trial. I don't think this is the last we'll see of Scott's Astroworld legal dilemmas.
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