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Travis Scott to fund event safety initiatives following Astroworld tragedy
By Andy Malt | Published on Wednesday 9 March 2022
Travis Scott has announced the launch of a new philanthropic project called Project HEAL – which in part aims to improve safety at live events in the wake of last year’s Astroworld tragedy.
Ten people died and hundreds more were injured last November following a crowd surge during Scott’s headline set at the Houston-based festival he founded. There were criticisms of the response by organisers and Scott himself to the incident as it unfolded, including the fact that the rapper continued to perform for 30 minutes after a “mass casualty event” had been declared.
In a statement posted on Instagram, Scott said last night: “Over the past few months I’ve been taking the time and space to grieve, reflect and do my part to heal my community. Most importantly, I want to use my resources and platform moving forward towards actionable change. This will be a lifelong journey for me and my family”.
“While it’s easy for corporations and institutions to stay in the shadows, I feel as a leader in my community, I need to step up in times of need”, he continued. “My team and I created Project HEAL to take much needed action towards supporting real solutions that make all events the safest spaces they can possibly be. I will always honour the victims of the Astroworld tragedy who remain in my heart forever”.
“Giving back and creating opportunities for the youth is something I’ve always done and will continue to do as long as I have the chance”, he concluded. “This programme will be a catalyst to real change and I can’t wait to introduce the rest of the technology and ideas we’ve been working on”.
Project HEAL will work in conjunction with Scott’s existing Cactus Jack Foundation. On the event safety side, the team behind the project say that they will fund a new event safety task force within the US Conference Of Mayors and an already in-development technological device – details of which have not yet been made public.
In addition to this, the project will also fund a number of other projects supporting young black people in higher education, support services for young people’s mental health needs, and an expansion of the existing CACT.US Youth Design Center at TXRX Labs in Houston.
