A spokesperson for Travis Scott is denying that he was responsible for deaths and injuries that occurred during his Nov. 5 performance at the Astroworld festival.
During an appearance on CBS News on Friday, Scott’s spokesperson Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said, “I mean this notion that Travis had the ability to stop the concert is ludicrous. They had a 59-page operations plan. “
“And it clearly said the only two people that have the authority to stop the concern were the executive producer and the concert producer. He was not responsible for this, but he wants to be responsible for the solution.”
Watch the video below:
Travis Scott spokesperson Stephanie Rawlings-Blake blames Astroworld Festival producers:
— The Recount (@therecount) November 12, 2021
“This notion that Travis had the ability to stop the concert is ludicrous … He was not responsible for this, but he wants to be responsible for the solution.” pic.twitter.com/SbXv1kr8Bf
At least nine people died, and dozens were injured after chaos broke out at the Nov. 5 AstroWorld music festival during Scott’s performance.
According to The Washington Post, “Some attendees have said they saw people crushed or trampled as the crowd estimated at 50,000 moved closer to the stage in the open air venue to see headliner Scott.”
Additionally, the Post reports that the first “early sign of the tragedy unfolding” at the festival came just 17 minutes into Scott’s performance. A Houston firefighter reportedly recorded in a log used to track radio communications in the venue that there was a report of an “individual with crush injury/breathing difficulty” at 9:18 p.m.
“Reports of unconscious and trampled people — some of them in cardiac arrest — came in quick succession in the minutes that followed,” the Post added.
Twelve minutes later the log notes that there were “reports multiple people trampled, passed out at front of stage.”
The performance continued for another 40 minutes, even though fire officials had labeled it a mass casualty event.
During an appearance on ABC’s “Good Morning America” Friday, Edwin F. McPherson, Scott’s lawyer, argued that there “obviously was a systemic breakdown that we need to get to the bottom of before we start pointing fingers at anyone.”
He also said neither Scott nor members of his team received word that the festival had been labeled a mass casualty event, and added, “We’ve seen footage of police half an hour later just walking about and not looking like it was a mass casualty event.”
McPherson continued, “But clearly the important thing is that never got to Travis, that never got to Travis’ crew. He’s up there trying to perform; he does not have any ability to know what’s going on down below, certainly on a mass level.”
“Travis didn’t really understand the full effect of everything until the next morning. Truly he did not know what was going on,” he added. “Understand that when he’s up on the stage, and he has flashpots going off around him, and he has an ear monitor that has music blasting through it and his own voice, he can’t hear anything, he can’t see anything.”
Scott and the organizers of the event are facing lawsuits accusing them of gross negligence.
