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Latest Astroworld lawsuit seeks $2 billion in damages
By Chris Cooke | Published on Friday 19 November 2021
The number of lawsuits being filed in relation to this month’s Astroworld tragedy in Houston, Texas continues to increase, as does the amount of damages being sought in the litigation. The latest filing on behalf of 282 victims is seeking up to $2 billion from the artists and companies involved in festival.
Ten people died and hundreds more were injured after a crowd surge occurred during Travis Scott’s headline set at the latest edition of the Astroworld event that he founded, which was staged at Houston’s NRG Park on 5 Nov. A criminal investigation is currently underway led by the Houston Police Department seeking to identify what led to the crowd surge, and to what extent poor planning or bad decision making on the ground contributed to the tragedy.
Alongside the criminal investigation is a stack of civil litigation, with a steady stream of lawsuits being filed over the last two weeks, by the families of those who died, and those who were injured during the crowd surge and/or have suffered emotional distress because of what they witnessed.
Last Friday, noted civil rights attorney Ben Crump announced that he was filing more than 90 lawsuits on behalf of over 200 people who attended the festival. Then on Tuesday, another lawyer, Tony Buzbee, filed a lawsuit on behalf of 125 victims which was seeking around $750 million in damages.
Now a third attorney, Thomas J Henry, one of the first lawyers to comment on the tragedy earlier this month, has filed litigation on behalf of 282 victims, which is seeking a massive $2 billion in damages from defendants including Scott himself, and the festival’s promoters, Scoremore and Live Nation.
Commenting on the lawsuit yesterday, Henry said: “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 organisers, and promoters that what happened at Astroworld cannot happen again”.
Drake is also named as a defendant on this new litigation – as he has been on various lawsuits filed in relation to Astroworld – because he joined Scott on stage at the event when, unbeknownst to the two stars, the tragedy was unfolding in the crowd in front of them.
In related news, a track on which Drake guests has been pulled from French Montana’s new album ‘They Got Amnesia’, which is out today. According to TMZ, Drake requested that the collaboration not appear on the record, because he feels it’s not appropriate for him to be releasing new music so soon after the tragic events that occurred during his guest spot at the Astroworld festival.
We discuss the legal fall out from the Astroworld tragedy further in this week’s episode of our Setlist podcast.
