As it was reported earlier on 8th November, Travis Scott’s Astroworld Festival turned into a tragedy, taking the lives of 8 people and injuring hundreds of others. Around a week after the event, the number of death toll rose to 10, after 22-year-old Bharti Shahani and 9-year-old Ezra Blount couldn’t recover from the injuries they got at the festival.
In the first 24 hours after the event, Houston attorney Tony Buzbee filed a lawsuit on behalf of 125 victims for 750 millions from the parties involved in the organization of the festival. As the story escalates, Travis Scott, Drake, Live Nation and others are facing lawsuits for 2 billion dollars from 282 attendees of the festival.
Thomas J. Henry, attorney representing the group of 282 people, gave a statement – “The defendants stood to make an exorbitant amount of money off of this event, and they still chose to cut corners, cut costs, and put attendees at risk. My clients want to ensure the defendants are held responsible for their actions, and they want to send the message to all performers, event organizers, and promoters that what happened at Astroworld cannot happen again.”. Moreover, Henry shared some details regarding the trauma of his clients in a conversation with Hollywood Life, saying “Those who were injured are still very traumatized because they had to step over dead bodies. They didn’t have a choice because there was nowhere to move. These people were trapped… They couldn’t breathe. They couldn’t get out.”
What makes the lawsuit interesting for many people is that Apple Music was involved in it as well, even though at first sight it can look like the company was not responsible for the organization of the festival, whether than its live streaming. However, according to Rolling Stones, the lawsuit, filed by Thomas J. Henry, mentions that “Early reports from the investigation of the Astroworld catastrophe indicate that the premises were arranged in a fashion that best served Apple’s online streaming of the concert at the detriment to concertgoer safety”.
None of the involved parties publicly responded to the lawsuit yet, but Drake and Travis Scott issued their statements regarding the tragedy. Apart from that, Travis promised to pay for the funerals of the festival’s victims.
