A Texas judge will hear arguments Monday on rap star Travis Scott’s request to be dismissed from a lawsuit over the deadly 2021 Astroworld festival in Houston.
Scott was headlining the concert that left ten people dead when authorities and festival organizers responded to a huge crowd and tried to shut down the show.
Last week, a judge dismissed lawsuits against hip-hop guest artist Drake, along with several other individuals and companies involved in the show.
Attorneys for Scott, whose real name is Jacques Bermon Webster II and is also known as “Cactus Jack,” write in the motion to dismiss that he is a performer and had no role in providing security or crowd management for the festival.
“Performers are not expected to provide special protection to the public, nor to protect them from the rest of the public,” the motion said. “Performing artists, even those engaged in certain promotional activities, have no inherent expertise or specialized knowledge in concert safety measures.”
The motion stated that Scott followed instructions and ended the show after a performance by Drake by performing one last song because there were concerns that an abrupt ending could have led to rioting, panic and chaos in the audience.
“So due diligence also required that we take the time to complete the show appropriately so that the audience would be satisfied and leave peacefully,” the document said.
After an investigation by Houston police, no charges were filed against Scott and a grand jury declined to indict him and five other people on criminal charges related to the deadly concert.
The dead, ranging in age from 9 to 27, died of compression asphyxiation, which one expert likened to being crushed by a car.
The first trial of the lawsuits is scheduled for May 6.
Some of the lawsuits filed by the families of the 10 people killed and hundreds injured have been settled, including those filed by the families of four of the dead.
