Travis Scott warned about Astroworld crowd size by Houston top cop before fest tragedy
Travis Scott was warned how bad things could get at his Astroworld Festival as Houston Police Chief Troy Finner -- who happens to know him personally-- visited the rapper in his trailer to talk about his concerns regarding the crowd size at the concert.
Speaking to the New York Times, a person familiar with Finner’s account, said the chief told the musician that a large number of his devoted fans had gathered for the Friday, November 5, show at NRG Park. Later that evening, eight people ended up dead and several hundred were injured when a group of people tried surging onto the stage where Travis was performing.
The rapper was performing on his Utopia Mountain stage on the opening night of the festival when the crowd began "to compress toward the front of the stage" just after 9 pm. This sparked panic and started causing some injuries. "We had scores of individuals that were injured," Houston Fire Chief Sam Pena said during a press conference. "People began to fall out, become unconscious and it created additional panic."
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A probe has been launched into the incident. So far, a police spokeswoman declined to comment to the newspaper about the chief’s private conversations. After facing heavy backlash for not stopping the concert midway even as the situation went from bad to worse, Travis took to Instagram to defend himself. Looking all troubled, Travis started, “I just wanna send prayers to the one that we lost last night. We are actually working right now to identify the families so that we can help the system through this tough time.”
Taking deep breaths and constantly rubbing his forehead, he continued, “My fans really mean the world to me. I always just want to leave them with a positive experience. I could just never understand the severity of the situation." He added that was devastated and repeatedly said he couldn't imagine anything like this happening.
Travis and Live Nation being sued
A couple of concertgoers have already filed lawsuits against Scott and Live Nation over the “predictable and preventable tragedy.” Several other lawsuits are expected. “Defendants failed to properly plan and conduct the concert in a safe manner,” lawyers for Manuel Souza, who claims to have been injured in the mayhem, said in papers filed Saturday in Harris County District Court, Billboard reported. The suit seeks at least $1 million in damages and claims the show was unruly from the start, when anxious fans “breached a security gate around the park, stampeded into the premises and trampled over one another” just to get into the sold-out concert.
A second lawsuit named Drake in addition to Travis and Live Nation and has been filed by a person named Kristian Paredes. According to TMZ, which obtained the court documents, Travis and Drake are being blamed for inciting the crowd at the festival. It also points out that Travis' concert history should have been at the forefront in the minds of the people who organized the festival. The rapper was charged over music festivals in Arkansas in 2017 and in Chicago in 2015 for urging his fans to ignore the security measures which caused a guard and several concertgoers to get injured.
There should have been a 'tactical pause' to the concert
The Astroworld Fest did not end until nearly 40 minutes after authorities had declared a “mass casualty event," it was reported. Houston Fire Chief Peña told NYT that the star and the concert organizers could have stepped in to stop the show sooner.
“The one person who can really call for and get a tactical pause when something goes wrong is that performer. They have that bully pulpit and they have a responsibility,” Peña said. “If somebody would have said, ‘Hey, shut this thing down and turn on the lights until this thing gets corrected’ — and that coming from the person with the mic — I think could have been very helpful,” he added.