A new lawsuit against rapper Travis Scott and the organizers of his Astroworld Festival says that nearly 5,000 people were injured at the event. Scott came under fire in November of 2021 when poor crowd management left three people dead during his live performance. Now, attendees have filed a class-action lawsuit that gives more details on the damage beyond those tragic deaths.
The lawsuit was filed in Harris County, Texas on Monday representing thousands of victims of the Astroworld “stampede.” It is headed by attorneys Jason Itkin, Richard Mithoff and Sean Roberts, who write that the number of attendees injured is much higher than previously reported. According to a report by Rolling Stone, their filings say that 732 victims were “severely” injured requiring “extensive” medical treatment after the concert, while another 1,649 attendees needed “less extensive” treatment. They are also representing 2,540 victims whose injuries are still under review and can’t be categorized yet.
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The lawsuit did not elaborate on what qualifies as “extensive” and “less extensive.” A spokesperson for the attorneys told The Daily Mail that a gag order was issued in February preventing them from giving more details on these terms. Other aspects of the lawsuit are being kept quiet as well – including the amount of money they are seeking for each victim.
This class action lawsuit comes on top of about 125 civil lawsuits against Scott and Live Nation – the concert promoter. The potential damages from all of those cases reportedly totals around $750 million.
Scott was the one performing when the crowd got out of hand, and some fans blamed him for failing to stop the show when it happened. Videos from the scene show Scott continuing to perform even while an ambulance drove into the crowd trying to extract dead and injured fans. However, others argued that Scott may not have seen what was going on in all the chaos.
The fans killed in the crowd ranged in age from 9 years old to 27 years old. Scott posted a public apology on Instagram the day after the tragedy, but that was heavily criticized by fans and detractors alike. Many called it insincere and hypocritical in light of Scott’s history of encouraging mayhem at his shows.
“I’m honestly just devastated,” Scott said in the now-deleted clip. “We’re actually working right now to identify the families so we can help assist them through this tough time. Any time I could make out, you know, anything that’s going on, you know, I just stopped my show and, you know, helped them get the help they need.”
