Astroworld Victim Attorney Reports First Settlement Over Deadly Festival

Attorneys for a man who died at the last year’s Astroworld music festival in Houston say they have reached an agreement to resolve their legal case against the festival’s organizers, one of the first known settlements in the sprawling litigation over the disaster.

Nearly a year after a crowd-crush during Scott’s Nov. 5 performance left 10 dead and hundreds injured, attorneys for the family of Axel Acosta, a 21-year-old killed in the incident, said Thursday that they had reached a settlement with the organizers. The terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

“The claims brought by the family of Axel Acosta against Travis Scott, Live Nation, and others involved in the Astroworld tragedy have settled,” said Tony Buzbee, who also represents scores of other victims. “Acosta was a beloved son, brother, and student. He was kind and loving. He is greatly missed. Please keep his family in your prayers.”

Separately, Houston’s ABC13 reported late Wednesday that the family of Brianna Rodriguez, a 16-year-old who died at Astroworld, had also settled their claims. Neither settlement is yet posted to the court’s public docket.

Despite Buzbee’s claim to a settlement — first reported by ABC13 and TMZ — a source close to Scott’s team told Billboard that the star’s lawyers had not participated in any such settlement. A rep for Live Nation did not immediately return a request for comment on Thursday.

Such agreements would represent two of the first known settlements in the sprawling litigation over the Astroworld disaster, in which thousands of victims are seeking billions of dollars in damages from Live Nation, Scott and others. The lawsuits, consolidated before a single judge earlier this year, claim the organizers were legally negligent in how they planned and conducted the event, resulting in one of the deadliest concert disasters in history.

The defendants, which also include venue manager ASM Global and the municipal Harris County Sports & Convention Corporation, strongly deny the allegations and have assembled a formidable team of lawyers to fight the litigation.

According to a legal filing in May, more than 4,900 people have filed legal claims stating they were injured in some capacity at Astroworld. In addition to the 10 people who died, 732 claims have been filed by people who needed “extensive medical treatment” and 1,649 who needed less extensive care. Another 2,540 were listed as “other,” meaning the extent of their injuries was still being reviewed. It’s unclear how many people claim physical harm versus mental and emotional harm, like post-traumatic stress.

The individual settlements announced this week are likely only a precursor to a larger deal. Similar litigation over previous concert disasters, like the 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas that left 60 dead or the 2003 nightclub fire in Rhode Island that killed 100, were ultimately resolved with large settlements covering hundreds of victims.