Travis Scott to headline first festival since Astroworld crush tragedy
He's scheduled to play Primavera Sao São Paulo just a year and a day after the tragedy occurred
By Jon Blistein
Travis Scott has booked his first headlining festival set since Astroworld — and it’s scheduled to take place one day after the first anniversary of the tragedy, during which a massive crowd surge injured scores of people and led to 10 deaths.
Scott was announced as one of the headliners for Primavera Sound’s upcoming festival in São Paulo, Brazil. He’s currently scheduled to play on Nov. 6, 2022; the Astroworld tragedy occurred Nov. 5, 2021. Reps for Primavera Sound Brazil declined to comment.
Scott is also expected to be announced as a headliner for more festivals this summer, although he already has a more immediate engagement on the books. For his first major public appearance since Astroworld, he’ll be at E11even, a Miami nightclub, next Saturday, May 7, for an event loosely tied to the Formula 1 Grand Prix in Miami. It’s unclear if Scott will just be making an appearance or actually performing (Rolling Stone has reached out to E11even and Scott’s reps for comment).
Scott has been sliding back into the public eye in recent months, albeit in more private settings. Back in March, he appeared at a pre-Oscars party and video captured him rapping and DJing for a brief moment. More recently, during the first weekend of Coachella, he reportedly performed five songs from the DJ booth at a late-night afterparty.
Scott is a main defendant in more than 380 lawsuits that have been filed by Astroworld victims and attendees, all of which have been combined into one master case. The suits are seeking billions in damages from Scott, Live Nation, Contemporary Services Corp., Apple, and others, alleging that Astroworld was negligently planned and staged and that the crowd surge during Scott’s performance was preventable.
Scott and the other defendants have denied the allegations against them. Scott also denied he knew how bad the situation was during his performance, telling Charlamagne Tha God last December that he only learned of the fatalities after he got off stage. In March, Scott launched a new event safety initiative, Project HEAL, which he backed with a $5 million funding commitment. The families of some Astroworld victims, however, have slammed the initiative, with the grandmother of 9-year-old victim, Ezra Blount, calling it “a PR stunt.”