The organizers of rapper Travis Scott's Astroworld music festival foresaw problems with crowds in 2021 that led to 10 deaths. The court is currently awaiting the final conclusions of experts.
This was reported by UNN with reference to BBC.
Details
The families of those who died during the 2021 concert of rap musician Travis Scott continue to sue the festival organizers, including Live Nation. At the previous hearings, recordings of conversations were presented, as well as expert opinions stating that the organizers had miscalculated the number of visitors. In particular, it concerns the number of visitors who could be legally admitted to the venue to avoid overcrowding.
According to court documents, the organizers mistakenly believed that fire codes allowed five square feet per person (0.46 square meters), but in fact there should have been seven (0.65 square meters).
As a result, about 50,000 people crammed into a venue designed for 34,500 people.
The documents also illustrate that the organizers were apparently concerned that stowaways could exacerbate the situation and further increase the crowd.
"When the sun goes down, we're going to be absolutely fucked," wrote one of the organizers, warning of the crowds of people without tickets gathered around the outer perimeter of the hall.
The situation was exacerbated by failures to create security conditions and the inability to control the crowd, which led to a significant stampede.
Recall
Court records from 2022 show that, excluding the fatalities, 4,921 people were injured in some way during Travis Scott's performance in Houston, Texas, on November 5, 2021. A total of 10 people aged nine to 27 died from injuries sustained after the fatal crowd surge at the festival.