Travis Scott and Live Nation are facing another lawsuit in relation to the 2021 Astroworld Festival, though this time from a business partner that remains out of pocket from its involvement in the event which was cancelled at the end of its first day following a fatal crowd surge.
Ceremony Of Roses was hired to organise and deliver “carnival-style games and amusements on the festival grounds" as part of the 2021 edition of the Scott-founded and Live Nation-promoted event. It covered the costs of providing those entertainments, with its deal with Live Nation allowing it to recoup that money from payments made by festival-goers to access the amusements. Profits would then be split 50/50.
Ten people died and hundreds more were injured when a crowd surge occurred during Scott's headline set at the end of the first day of the two day festival. In the wake of that tragedy, the second day of the proceedings was cancelled. As a result, Ceremony Of Roses was not able to recoup its costs related to, and make a profit from, the amusements it was running.
In a lawsuit seen by The Blast, Ceremony Of Roses states that it had a reasonable expectation that Scott, Live Nation and its Scoremore subsidiary would run a safe event.
“At the very minimum, defendants owed COR a duty to exercise ordinary care in maintaining a safe and secure environment for COR’s business activities and festival attendees", the legal filing states. "Defendants negligently and wilfully breached this duty in numerous respects".
Hundreds of lawsuits were filed in the wake of Astroworld 2021, most from those who were injured during the crowd surge, as well as the families of those who died.
However, there was also a lawsuit in relation to the financial losses of festival-goers, involving people who had pre-bought digital vouchers - specifically ‘magic money’ - that would be used to access amusements at the event. And which could not be redeemed after the second day of the festival was cancelled. Ceremony Of Roses was a defendant in that lawsuit.
The new lawsuit filed by Ceremony Of Roses doesn't state what damages are being sought from Scott and Live Nation, though it does state that the company invested at least $700,000 in setting up the amusements.
Interestingly, Ceremony Of Roses - a management, merchandising and events company - formed an alliance with Sony Music last year. The major invested in the business and moved its own merchandise operations under the Ceremony Of Roses banner. Sony is, of course, also Scott's label.