Travis Scott To Cover Funeral Costs Of Astroworld Concert Victims, Give Attendees Full Refunds
Travis Scott To Cover Funeral Costs Of Astroworld Concert Victims, Give Attendees Full Refunds
American rapper, Travis Scott, has pledged to cover all funeral costs of victims who died at his Astroworld Festival on Friday.
This was made known in a statement released by the producer’s team on Monday, the CNN reports.
Members of a densely packed crowd surged toward a stage and were crushed against each other during Scott’s concert on Friday, leading to the death of at least eight people while scores of others were injured in the chaos, according to witnesses.
In addition to the payment of the funeral costs, Scott will also partner with a medical facility to offer mental health services to those who have been affected by the tragedy.
The facility, known as BetterHelp, through this partnership, will offer itse mental health services free-of-charge.
The statement reads;
Travis remains in active conversations with the city of Houston, law enforcement and local first responders to respectfully and appropriately connect with the individuals and families of those involved. These are the first of many steps Travis plans on taking as a part of his personal vow to assist those affected throughout their grieving and recovery process.
Separately, organizers of Astroworld will provide a full refund to all ticketholders — both those who attended Friday and those who held tickets for Saturday’s canceled events.
Also, Astroworld organisers have vowed to fully refund all ticket holders of the show; the Friday attendees and those who paid for Saturday’s canceled events.
Scott, a native of Houston, has multiple philanthropic projects in the community geared toward providing resources to youths in the city.
The third annual festival, part of a week of charitable activities where Scott and partners unveiled several education and park beautification projects, is named after his 2018 album “Astroworld.”
Scott took to social media over the weekend and wrote;
I’m absolutely devastated by what took place last night. My prayers go out to the families and all those impacted by what happened at Astroworld Festival.
Also, Scott’s partner, Kylie Jenner, was in attendance at the festival and also posted a statement to say that both she and Scott did not know what was happening in the crowd during the performance.
Jenner wrote;
I want to make it clear we weren’t aware of any fatalities until the news came out after the show and in no world would have continued filming or performing.
Scott took the stage shortly after 9pm on Friday to perform to 50,000 attendees. Some of those concertgoers described the event as traumatizing, with many witnesses saying they saw lifeless bodies being trampled amid the chaos.
The first reports of injuries began at 9:30pm, with Scott continuing to perform until a little after 10pm.
He did stop performing at one point when an ambulance was seen driving into the crowd.
Houston Police Chief, Troy Finner told CNN that the investigation is ongoing and is asking the community “to be considerate of the grieving families” and to “lift them up in prayer.”