On November 5, rapper Jacques Berman Webster II, better known as Travis Scott, held a concert that led to the unfortunate deaths of ten people and injury of hundreds. This tragedy led to several lawsuits against Webster, Live Nation, Aubrey “Drake” Graham and Scott’s record label Cactus Jack Records.

The abundance of these lawsuits have led many to wonder who is actually to blame.

First, law enforcement had set a capacity of 50,000 people which was met exactly, showing slight negligence by the venue, Live Nation, due to their lack of further restriction to the number of guests. This is especially true when considering the fact that violence that had been seen in Scott’s previous shows.

Many jump to blame Scott for continuing the show, even after noticing ambulances attempting to make their way into the crowd. During one of his sets, Scott saw this and temporarily stopped the show so that the ambulance could get through, but soon resumed the concert.

Scott’s spokesperson later explained that Scott could not have stopped the show even if he wanted to. The spokesperson then cited a 59-page operations plan which stated that the only people who had the power to stop the concert were the executive producer and the concert producer.

This seemingly puts the blame on the executive producer and the concert producer. However, this does not mean that Scott is not at some fault.

Although the operations plan states that the responsibility to stop the show does not fall on Scott, the plan did not outline a response to the kind of situation that unfolded that night, meaningthat Scott may have in fact had the power to stop the show.

Scott and Drake are also being sued for inciting the events that occurred. Scott, at one point even yelled to the crowd, “I wanna see some ragers, man.” 

Similar events have occurred at previous shows Scott has put on. In response to the past violence, Scott and his producers decided to increase security. However, as evidenced by the Astroworld tragedy, these security measures have had little impact.

When it comes to this issue I believe that multiple people are to blame. 

Scott and Drake are to blame due to their lack of action during the concert and the incitement of violence. The producers and venue are also to blame due to their lack of action as well as their decision to go to the set capacity limit for the show.

With issues like this there is no single person at fault but instead multiple people responsible for this tragic event. To prevent this, all parties that contribute to the production of the concert need to take into account the past behavior that has been seen at the artists previous performances and change their booking as well as their security accordingly. Artists also need to avoid inciting violent behavior or intense crowding at their shows. Changing these major factors will lead to a more safe environment for the attendees as well as the artist.