Did organizers of Travis Scotts' fatal concert foresee overcrowding

Organisers of rapper Travis Scott's Astroworld music festival foresaw the crowding issues in 2021 that led to 10 deaths, new court documents claim.

Ten days before, the festival's safety head raised concern about the number of people who would be near the stage.

"I feel like there is no way we are going to fit 50k in front of that stage," Seyth Boardman wrote to the Texas festival's operations director.

The exchange was one of many included in recent court filings.

Lawyers for some of the families, and others affected by the Astroworld tragedy, submitted the documents that contained the alleged conversations and supporting information as evidence in the mass civil litigation they have filed against the festival's organisers.

Expert evidence submitted by the plaintiffs claims that festival planners miscalculated the number of people that could be legally allowed on the premise to avoid overcrowding.

The new court documents show that organisers mistakenly thought the fire safety code allowed for five square feet per person, but the actual number was seven.

That seems to have contributed to a crowd of roughly 50,000 cramming into a space meant for only 34,500 people.

The defence team has not yet filed their expert reports in court.

The documents also illustrate that organisers appeared to be concerned that gatecrashers entering without a ticket could exacerbate the situation and further increase the crowd size.

"We are going to be absolutely screwed when the sun goes down," one organiser wrote, warning about the crowds of un-ticketed people who gathered around the venue's exterior perimeter.

That issue was compounded by security lapses on the day of the event and a failure to monitor the crowd for signs of a potential crowd crush, experts alleged in the court filings.

This civil case is set to begin in May, and the defendants include Mr Scott, concert company Live Nation Entertainment and venue manager ASM.

Mr Scott's live performances are known to be lively, so much so that crowd surges at his shows have been so strong that they have registered on earthquake monitors.

The crowd crush during his set at Astroworld in Houston on 5 November 2021 saw 10 young fans suffer fatal injuries.

An independent investigation into the tragedy was rejected by Harris County commissioners in 2021. A grand jury also declined to charge Mr Scott and five others criminally in June 2023.

Mr Scott has contended with numerous lawsuits since the concert, and he has successfully settled some of them. But he still faces several active civil cases.

Drake, the rapper whose real name is Aubrey Drake Graham, performed with Mr Scott at the festival and was named in some of the lawsuits as well.

He is seeking to be dismissed from those cases.

His lawyers have argued that he had no involvement in the planning of the festival and was unaware of any safety problems before joining Mr Scott during his set.