Vegas Residency For Festival Death-Tainted Rapper Travis Scott

Posted on: August 1, 2022, 11:42h. 

Last updated on: August 2, 2022, 05:22h.

Corey Levitan Read More
Expertise: Commercial Gaming, Entertainment, Expert Insight, Las Vegas.

Rapper Travis Scott will headline a Las Vegas residency nearly a year after his headlining set at Houston’s Astroworld Festival left 10 people dead and thousands more injured.

Controversial rapper Travis Scott
Travis Scott is a defendant in a civil suit accusing him of negligence over a performance at a 2021 Houston music festival that killed 10 people. (Image: Getty)

Beginning Sept. 17, 2022, Scott will headline a seven-night residency called “Road to Utopia” at the Zouk Nightclub inside Resorts World Las Vegas, according to a press release from the Zouk Group.

The press release called Scott, who shares two children with Kylie Jenner, “an obvious choice to elevate the experience and offer something guests have not yet seen.” Said Ronn Nicolli, Chief Marketing Officer of Resorts World Las Vegas, “His residency will bring a new level of energy to Resorts World Las Vegas and add to the property’s diverse list of entertainment and nightlife offerings.”

Scott’s first appearance at Zouk was a surprise show in May following the 2022 Billboard Music Awards at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. Scott had been scheduled to return to town over Labor Day Weekend for Day N Vegas. It would have been his first festival appearance since Astroworld. But organizers canceled that event, blaming “a combination of logistics, timing, and production issues.”

General admission and VIP tickets are on sale for the first two “Road to Utopia” shows — September 17 and October 15 — through Zouk’s website.

What Happened at Astroworld

The 31-year-old rapper, whose real name is Jacques Bermon Webster II, was performing at Astroworld when the crowd surged the stage. The deceased, who all died of compression asphyxia, included two children, aged 14 and 16.

Following the tragedy, 400 lawsuits were filed against Scott, concert promoter Live Nation, and other festival organizers. All parties were accused of negligence in planning and managing the festival. The 400 lawsuits were then combined into litigation for a single judge. The list of plaintiffs has since grown to 2,800, and the total damages they seek is in the billions.

In a statement issued immediately after the tragedy, Scott said he was “devastated” by what happened. But in court filings responding to the lawsuits, his representatives denied all allegations of responsibility. They asked that claims be dismissed with prejudice, meaning they cannot be brought to court again.

In December 2021, Scott told radio and TV personality Charlamagne Tha God that he “1,000 percent” did everything possible to help his dying fans once he was aware of the problem.

“Anytime you can hear something like that, you want to stop the show, you want to make sure fans get the proper attention they need,” he said. “And anytime I could see anything like that, I did. I stopped it, like, a couple times to just make sure everybody was OK.”

A History of Crowd-Provoking

Scott was arrested at least twice for inciting concert crowds. During a Lollapalooza performance in 2015, police said he told attendees to go over security barricades, according to CNN affiliate WLS. Fortunately, no one was injured. Scott later pleaded guilty to misdemeanor reckless conduct and was sentenced to a year of court supervision, according to the Chicago Tribune.

In 2018, Scott was arrested in Rogers, Ark., and charged with inciting a riot after police said he “encouraged people to rush onto the stage and bypass safety protocols.” Scott pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct and paid more than $6,800 to two people who said they were injured, according to the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

The families of seven of the 10 Astroworld victims reportedly declined the musician’s offer to pay for funeral costs.