Astroworld Festival latest Travis Scott and Drake sued by crush survivors as flowers left at memorial

At least 8 dead, several others injured during Astroworld music festival, officials say

Travis Scott and the organisers of the Astroworld event that left eight people dead have been sued by an injured concertgoer who branded it a “predictable and preventable tragedy.”

Lawyers for Manuel Souza filed a petition in Harris County District Court suing Scott, event organiser ScoreMore and concert giant Live Nation over the Friday night incident, according to Billboard.

At least two investigations are now underway into the deadly stampede which took placed at the opening night of the Astroworld music festival in Houston, Texas.

A sold-out headline show by rapper and festival organiser Travis Scott on turned deadly when guests began pushing towards the front of the stage, crushing some and reportedly leaving them unable to breathe.

Officials said a 14-year-old was among the victims, and that a security guard may have been injected with drugs as the chaos unfolded.

The mayor of Houston has vowed to “leave [no] stone unturned” in investigating the disaster, while Mr Scott said in a message to fans that he is “absolutely devastated.”

Livestreamed footage of the event showed the rapper pausing his performance as an ambulance arrived at the venue, NRG Park.

Follow latest updates below:

Show latest update 1636333294‘We were literally partying in a graveyard'

ICYMI: We are now learning more about just how the crowd crush unfolded, and it isn’t good. While authorities became fully aware of the problem at 9:30pm, evidence is mounting that it started much earlier.

Madeline Eskins, an ICU nurse who was attending the concert as a guest, told the Washington Post that the atmosphere began to change at 8:50pm, just before Mr Scott took the stage. Squeezed and shoved into an ever-tighter space, she passed out about 25 minutes later.

When she woke up around 9:30pm, she says, she saw many other people "in pretty bad shape", with some lacking a pulse and others receiving CPR or shocks from a defibrillator. “As an ICU nurse, we have organised procedures in place when people go into cardiac arrest. But this was hell," she said.

Alana Stevenson, 20, said that within the first few songs of Mr Scott’s set people were "really basically screaming bloody murder, asking for help", and struggling to get free, sometimes knocking each other out but not realising that there was "nowhere for anyone to go".

She said: “We were literally partying in a graveyard. There was dead bodies and people kept going.”

When rescue carts tried to inch their way through the thick crowd, some people climbed up on them and danced on them. Desmond Gary, 25, told the Post: "It kind of just turned into like, World War Three out there, like people literally fighting for their lives.”

All of this came before 9:30pm.

Graeme Massie8 November 2021 01:011636331734'It was primal instinct: I had to get out'

Since last night, people who were in the crowd have come forward to describe their experiences as mass excitement and a desire to get closer to the stage turned into escalating panic and confinement.

“It was like a ripple effect. One person pushed, and everyone went,” 25-year-old Gerardo Abad Garcia from Denver told The LA Times.

“There was like no airflow in there. It was just like primal instinct: I had to get out.”

“You kept going forward, backward â€" you couldn’t move,” said Julian Ponce, 21, a psychology student at the University of Texas San Antonio.

Renecca Kallabat, 26, said “it felt like life or death the whole time we were in the crowd”.

In one chilling clip taken from the official Apple Music live stream, someone can be heard screaming “help us!” repeatedly in the background (warning: the audio is disturbing).

Another concertgoer, Jake Scampini, told The Washington Post: “I started freaking out. I thought I was going to pass out. I had to breathe out of my nose because I had an arm around my throat and my mouth.”

Io Dodds8 November 2021 00:351636330534Houston PD says Astroworld investigation ‘very active'

The police department posted a statement on Twitter that said the investigation “remains very active and is in its early stages.

“Our prayers remain with the families affected by this tragic event,” the statement said.

Graeme Massie8 November 2021 00:151636329754Fan posts video of Travis Scott stopping show

A fan called “wholelottajustin” posted video on TikTok of Travis Scott pausing his set to point out a fan that had passed out in front of him.

Graeme Massie8 November 2021 00:021636327076Travis Scott sued for ‘predictable and preventable’ Astroworld tragedy

Travis Scott and the organisers of the Astroworld event that left eight people dead have been sued by an injured concertgoer who branded it a “predictable and preventable tragedy.”

Lawyers for Manuel Souza filed a petition in Harris County District Court suing Scott, event organiser ScoreMore and concert giant Live Nation over the Friday night incident.

The lawsuit claims the tragedy was the result of “a motivation for profit at the expense of concertgoers’ health and safety” and the “encouragement of violence,” according to Billboard.

Graeme Massie7 November 2021 23:171636325674Astroworld memorial grows in Houston

A memorial to the Astroworld victims has grown in Houston on Sunday. Mourners hugged each other and left floral tributes to the eight people who were killed in the crush at the Travis Scott even on Friday.

Graeme Massie7 November 2021 22:541636324663Travis Scott and Drake sued over Astroworld deaths, report says

Rappers Travis Scott and Drake have been sued over the Astroworld event that left eight people dead.

The hip-hop stars have both been named in a lawsuit seeking $1m in damages that was filed on behalf of an injured victim, according to Fox News.

Texas attorney Thomas Henry filed a lawsuit on Sunday against Scott, whose real name is Jacques Bermon Webster, as well as Drake, whose real name is Aubrey Drake Graham.

The suit was filed on behalf of concertgoer Kristian Paredes, 23, from Austin, Texas, according to DailyMail.com.

Paredes reportedly filed the complaint seeking more than $1 million in damages after both rappers allegedly “incited the crowd” and left him injured.

The lawsuit also names Live Nation and NRG Stadium, according to reports.

Billboard says that it is the second lawsuit to emerge from the Astroworld incident, after a concert attendee filed a suit against Scott, organiser ScoreMore and Live Nation in Harris County District Court on Saturday.

(Amy Harris/Invision/AP)Graeme Massie7 November 2021 22:371636320118Flowers left at makeshift memorial

Here is footage of the makeshift memorial that has sprung up at the Astroworld grounds. Houstonites left flowers and lit candles in memory of the eight people who died in the disaster.

Flowers left at makeshift memorial for Astroworld victimsIo Dodds7 November 2021 21:211636317383‘This could have been avoided’, claims man suing Travis Scott for previous injury

My colleague Graeme Massie reports in more detail on Kyle Green, 27, who was injured at Travis Scott’s April 2017 show at the Terminal 5 venue in Manhattan and claims he was forced over a railing during the “severely crowded” event.

Mr Green’s lawyer Howard Hershenhorn said he was “incensed by the fact that it could have been avoided had Travis learned his lesson in the past and changed his attitude”. Mr Scott’s legal team are fighting the lawsuit.

Io Dodds7 November 2021 20:361636311225Videos show crowd trying to stop the show

Multiple videos show the Astroworld crowd attempting to stop the show early, to no avail.

One clip obtained by ABC 13 shows concertgoers chanting "stop the show! Stop the show!" Another circulating on TikTok shows the same chants from a different angle.

Astroworld crowd chants 'stop the show'

There are also two videos going around on TikTok that appear to show a young woman and a young man on top of a camera platform during Travis Scott’s set, screaming at a operator to do something.

"There’s someone dead in there! There is someone dead!" the woman shouts. She is joined by the young man who yells "stop the show! Stop the show!" The operator seems to ignore them, alternating between shooing them away and focusing on his camera.

This may be the same woman, Seanna Faith McCarty, who posted on Friday night about taking similar actions. On Saturday, she put the same clip to her Instagram page.

Io Dodds7 November 2021 18:53

Share this post