Crowd Crush at Travis Scott Concert Leaves Eight Dead, Rapper Sued

The rapper said he is cooperating with police.

On November 5, a crowd crush broke out at the Astroworld Festival music festival in Houston, Texas, killing eight people. Here is what happened during Travis Scott's performance and who sued him after the incident.

Travis Scott's Performance

The crush began at the opening of the festival, which drew 50,000 people. During the performance of rapper Travis Scott, who has been staging Astroworld since 2018, spectators began pushing toward the front of the stage, causing a crush.

Unrest in the crowd intensified after rapper Drake joined Scott on stage. Around 9:15 p.m. local time, listeners began crowding the stage, and some lost consciousness. At 9:38 p.m., a "mass casualty incident" occurred.

During the concert, Travis Scott stopped the performance several times, as he saw people pushing near the stage, and asked security to help injured people get out of the crowd. Several times, emergency vehicles with sirens and flashing lights drove up to the stage.

On Twitter, users posted videos from the festival showing some spectators jumping on the roof of a vehicle with flashing lights while the performance was ongoing.

Organizers stopped the concert when they realized there were injured people. The second day of the Astroworld Festival was due to take place on November 6, but it was canceled. Investigators were identifying the dead, and local authorities said many of them were too "young."

The festival organizer, Live Nation, and Travis Scott himself are cooperating with police. Seventeen people were taken to hospital, including 11 people who suffered cardiac arrest. One of the injured is 10 years old.

After the incident, Scott posted a message on Twitter saying that he is cooperating with police and is ready to support the families of the victims. "I am absolutely devastated by what happened," the rapper said.

Rapper Sued

Travis Scott and other organizers of the Astroworld Festival in Texas (the companies ScoreMore and Live Nation) were sued after eight people died in the crush.

One Astroworld attendee, Manuel Souza, claims in the lawsuit that the crush was directly linked to the "encouragement of violence" and the organizers' desire to "profit at the expense of attendees' health and safety."

According to CBS News, at least two other festival attendees have also sued the musician and festival organizers. One of the lawsuits names as defendants not only Scott but also rapper Drake, who was also on stage during the crush.

Paredes did not cite examples of other cases, but demanded $1 million in compensation for injuries sustained during the incident.