With nearly 400 suits filed against the Astroworld Festival organizers Live Nation and Travis Scott, the Texas Judicial Panel On Multidistrict Litigation has officially agreed to combine the suits into one case under the state’s multidistrict litigation process. Both plaintiffs and defendants wanted to combine the cases for simplicity. The new case will include at least 387 separate lawsuits with almost 2,800 alleged victims, with nearly $3 billion at stake. The suits argue that Live Nation and Travis Scott were negligent in the planning and execution of the festival.
According to Billboard, there was at least one hold-out, Brent Coon & Associates, that “argued in December the process was unnecessary” but fell in line with the rest. The case could also include additional “tag-along cases” that were filed later, with some victims dropping cases during litigation.
Live Nation and Travis Scott were sued in the wake of the Astroworld Festival when eight people were killed and nearly 300 others were injured by a crowd crush during Travis’ first-day closing set. Members of the crowd were suffocated and trampled as Travis reportedly performed for nearly 40 minutes after a mass casualty event had been declared by authorities. Two more victims died from their injuries after the festival, including one as young as 14 years old.