After a deadly incident a Texas music festival in which 8 people lost their lives, production company Live Nation and headliner Travis Scott are being sued. Called “a predictable tragedy” by festival attendee Manuel Souza, the suit alleges organizers ignored signs throughout the event of a possible problem.
50,000 people attended the Houston event, which was named after an album of Scott’s. While the exact timeline is unclear, we do know the basics. When headliner Scott took the main stage, a large portion of the audience surged, causing a bigger-than-average human stampede. This resulted in hundreds (if not thousands) of bodies pressing forward, causing several complaints of cardiac arrests, 8 deaths, and numerous injuries.
“Defendants failed to properly plan and conduct the concert in a safe manner,” Souza’s attorney, Steve Kherkher (Kherkher Garcia LLP) said in a statement. “Instead, they consciously ignored the extreme risks of harm to concertgoers, and, in some cases actively encouraged and fomented dangerous behaviors.”
Souza accuses the organizers of negligence and gross negligence. He is seeking $1 million in damages.
As the days pass after the tradegy, more and more information is coming to light. Like the fact that stage scheduling may have played a factor. Think of larger-scale European festivals and concerts, which have multiple stages happening at the same time. This isn’t just to annoy you by having one band still playing while another starts- it’s to help mitigate crowd control and prevent things like this. That’s not to say we believe there was any kind of purposeful negligence, but, there sure seems to be some signs that were ignored along the way.
The suit alleges “a motivation for profit at the expense of concertgoers’ health and safety,” as well as “encouragement of violence” by Scott himself.
Our thoughts go out to everyone effected by this terrible situation.
Mary Anne Butler
Mary Anne Butler (Mab) has been part of the fast-paced world of journalism since she was 15, getting her start in album reviews and live concert coverage for a nationally published (print) music magazine. She eventually transitioned to online media, writing for such sites as UGO/IGN, ComicsOnline, Geek Magazine, Ace of Geeks, Aggressive Comix (where she is still Editor-in-Chief), Bleeding Cool (where she was News Editor), and now Nerdbot as Editor-In-Chief. Over the past 10 years, she’s built a reputation at conventions across the globe as a cosplayer (occasionally), photographer (constantly), panelist and moderator (mostly), and reporter (always). Interviews, reviews, observations, breaking news, and objective reporting are the name of the game for the founder of Harkonnen Knife Fight, a Dune-themed band with an international presence. Though she be but little, she is fierce.
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