A judge has declined Travis Scott’s motion to dismiss the hundreds of lawsuits filed against the rapper in the wake of the tragic events of the 2021 Astroworld festival, as the Associated Press reports. With the ruling, Scott is set to face his first civil trial on May 6th.
The judge’s decision comes after several other parties named in the lawsuits successfully moved for dismissal, including Drake, Epic Records, and others. Scott’s lawyers had aimed for similar results, arguing that the artist was only responsible for creative aspects of the festival’s planning and had no involvement in logistics or safety.
However, Noah Wexler — an attorney for the family of Astroworld victim Madison Dubiski — argued that Scott demonstrated a “conscious disregard for safety.” He alleged Scott encouraged non-ticket holders to break into the venue and ignored organizers when they alerted the rapper of the dangers and attempted to stop the performance.
Ultimately, Houston Judge Kristen Hawkins ruled that Scott could be held civilly responsible for the 10 deaths that occurred at Astroworld.
The ruling follows the release of a number of reports that claimed the safety of Astroworld was a concern well before the festival opened its gates. In July 2023, the Houston Police Department released a 1,266-page report that found officials had attempted to warn Live Nation that the festival was too large for the venue before the event.
The same report also found that unconscious attendees were being lifted out of mosh pits and that deaths had occurred both before and during Scott’s headlining performance. In March 2024, further documents came to light that claimed the festival had wildly miscalculated their maximum capacity in relation to safety codes.
Notably, Scott was not charged by the Houston Police Department following their investigation, and a grand jury decided not to indict him on any criminal counts. Scott has also already settled some of the civil lawsuits out of court.
In September 2023, Scott claimed that his phone “fell off a boat” and thus could not be used as evidence in any of the trials. He also returned to the road for the first time since the Astroworld festival in late 2023 with the “Utopia – Circus Maximus” tour, which promoted his most recent album, Utopia.
