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Nine of 10 wrongful death lawsuits stemming from the Astroworld festival disaster have been settled, a plaintiff’s attorney confirmed Wednesday, averting a trial where superstar rapper Travis Scott could have faced tough questioning under oath.
The settlements cover all the families except for the youngest concert victim, 9-year-old Ezra Blount, according to statements in court first reported by the Associated Press. Blount’s attorney, Scott West, confirmed his case is pending.
The settlements wrap up a long quest for justice for most of the families whose loved ones died from a crowd crush during Scott’s performance at the festival on the grounds of NRG Park.
The concert quickly turned deadly on Nov. 5, 2021. Scott took the stage at 9:02 p.m.; within minutes, the crowd crush began and fans collapsed.
Even as officials declared the concert a mass casualty event, Scott – whose contract included a $4.5 million bonus for completing his set – continued performing for another 37 minutes until the concert’s conclusion.
For more than two years, families have been seeking to hold accountable Scott and the companies with roles at the festival, which include the concert promoter Live Nation, the venue operator ASM Global, concert livestreamer Apple and various security companies.
There has never been an independent investigation of the concert disaster, which meant that the lawsuits the victims’ families filed in Harris County Civil Court likely represented their only chance at an accounting of what happened on the night of Nov. 5, 2021.
The parents of victim Madison Dubiski, 23, were set to have their case heard first.
“The parties were able to reach agreement on a confidential settlement,” Dubiski’s legal team said in a statement to the Landing Wednesday afternoon. “The parties will cooperate in the future to honor Madison Dubiski’s legacy and promote improvements in concert safety.”
Ted Anastasiou, a spokesman for Scott, issued a similar statement, saying the rapper was grateful a resolution could be reached without the need for a trial and that the agreement would “honor Madison Dubiski’s legacy and promote improvements for concert safety.”
The trial had been set to begin this week in Judge Kristen Brauchle Hawkins’ courtroom, but it was delayed by a last-minute appeal from Apple, which argued that it should be shielded from liability as a news-gathering organization.
Scott and other festival planners were set to face questions about why they decided to funnel all of the concertgoers to a single stage at the end of the night for Scott’s climactic performance.
That programming decision, as well as poorly designed crowd-control barriers and ticket sales that vastly exceeded the venue’s capacity, all contributed to the deaths at the festival, according to experts for the plaintiffs.
Public documents show the Houston Police Department had hosted discussions about similar crowding issues at Scott’s 2019 concert in Houston.
In an “after-action” meeting following that 2019 festival then-Executive Assistant Chief Larry Satterwhite, who was named interim chief Wednesday upon the sudden resignation of Police Chief Troy Finner, said the department needed “more ways to get to the middle of the crowd and get to the kids that have trouble in the middle of the crowd. There were kids who were up against the barricade who were experiencing crowd crush and turning blue.”
The 2019 concert did not result in any fatalities.
Two years later, despite lessons learned, a series of mistakes led to deadlier outcomes. Documents show that festival organizers erroneously calculated the needed space for fans by estimating 5 square feet of room per attendee, rather than the 7 square feet mandated by the state fire code. While space was made for 50,000 fans, using a metric of 7 feet of space for each person would have cut the capacity by 15,500.
In recent weeks, Hawkins denied motions from Scott, Live Nation and Apple to be dismissed from the case. She also said that plaintiffs could question Scott about the extended process of shutting down the show.
Satterwhite also was on the witness list. Satterwhite was one of the department’s liaisons with festival planners in the weeks leading up to the disaster, attempted to order the show to shut down and performed CPR on one of the victims before she was pronounced dead.
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