Astroworld promoters oversaw other events where concertgoers trampled fellow fans, broke barricades

The concert promoter behind Astroworld Festival has weathered a couple dozen tragedies amid years of market dominance in the live entertainment industry, including unruly crowds, overzealous security and faulty equipment at various venues. Live Nation Entertainment and its subsidiary Live Nation Worldwide have been linked to at least 750 injuries and around 200 deaths at its events in seven countries since 2006, according to a review of court records, Occupational Safety and Health complaints and news reports. The company has also come under federal scrutiny for work safety and antitrust violations. The artists whose names accompany events where people have died or been injured run the gamut — Radiohead, Madonna, Beyonce, Dua Lipa, Drake and Jimmy Buffett. Some of these incidents appear reminiscent of the horrific scene Saturday morning outside NRG Park, hours after eight people died in a rush toward the stage during rapper Travis Scott’s show. At the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, hundreds of surging fans at a free post-hardcore concert caused a barricade to collapse, injuring 19. In 2016, a crowd forced a railing to give way at a Snoop Dogg concert in Camden, N.J., causing 50 people to fall about 10 feet onto a concrete pathway. The tragedies at Live Nation concerts include violent intrusions on the premises — an explosion set off by a suicide bomber that killed 22 people at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England in 2017; a mass shooting at a country music festival in Las Vegas in 2017 that killed 60; and a terrorist attack at a concert hall in Paris where 89 people were slain. The company settled for $50 million with victims of a stage collapse at the Indiana State Fair in 2011 that was prompted by winds of over 60 mph. That disaster killed seven people and injured 61. A jury awarded $101 million to a concert staffer who suffered brain damage when a forklift toppled the booth where he was working on Long Island, N.Y. in 2013. Fans who attended a 2018 concert in Central Park said in court documents they were “trampled, pummeled, assaulted” during a stampede. The company has also faced lawsuits, including one by a concertgoer who broke her leg during a stampede at an outdoor Gwen Stefani concern in North Carolina in July 2016. The lawsuit says Stefani made a casual remark from the stage about seats being available in a reserved area near the stage, which prompted “a stampede rush of patrons from the lawn seating area through the reserved seating area and toward the front of the performance stage, with people knocking over and breaching the security barricades and other security matter, jumping over seats in the reserved seating area, and pouring in through the aisles separating the various sections of the reserved seating area.” Between 2016 and 2019, Live Nation was Live Nation Entertainment and Live Nation Worldwide were cited for 10 OSHA violations and fined for serious violations, including problems with a ladder, rope and scaffolding that caused a fall at a theater in Connecticut in 2016. Inspectors found minor violations at an amphitheater in Mountain View, Calif., in 2017 and at an inspection in Washington state in 2019. A non-union employee was hospitalized for lacerations in the early hours of Sept. 27, 2018, when he was struck by a 6-foot steel post that fell in a staging area at another California event. Live Nation was fined $11,000 for that violation. - 'We were like sardines in a can': Astroworld survivors recount chaos amid filing of more lawsuits - Preventing the next Astroworld tragedy: What can the music industry do? -Leaked Houston firefighter logs offer minute-by-minute look into Astroworld tragedy - Before Astroworld, Travis Scott revamped a Sunnyside basketball court. Now, nearly every trace of him is gone. - Travis Scott 'had no idea what was going on' during Astroworld tragedy, rapper's spokesperson says - 'It was like watching a Jenga tower topple' at Astroworld Festival - For 37 minutes, Travis Scott kept playing as ‘mass casualty’ unfolded - 'It could have been me': How the tragedy at Astroworld Festival unfolded The festival issued a statement of condolence early Saturday following the Houston event, where dozens were also injured in a surge among the sold-out crowd of some 50,000 during Scott’s performance late Friday. “Our hearts are with the Astroworld Festival family tonight — especially those we lost and their loved ones. We are focused on supporting local officials however we can,” festival organizers said in a statement. “As authorities mentioned in their press conference earlier, they are looking into the series of cardiac arrests that took place. If you have any relevant information on this, please reach out to Houston Police. Thank you to our partners at the Houston Police Department, Fire Department and NRG Park for their response and support.” Live Nation also issued a statement via Instagram: "Heartbroken for those lost and impacted at Astroworld last night. We will continue working to provide as much information and assistance as possible to the local authorities as they investigate the situation.” Attorneys for Live Nation, reached through another lawyer, did not respond to a request for comment. Billboard says Live Nation is the world’s largest live-entertainment company. Variety news organizations initially reported that CEO Michael Rapino gave up his salary in deference to the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the music industry. Variety later reported that Rapino only forewent two months of income: he earned $1.89 million in 2020. Ticketmaster L.L.C., a subsidiary of Live Nation, agreed to pay a $10 million fine to resolve federal criminal charges in Brooklyn, N.Y., stemming from charges it had accessed the computer systems of a competitor repeatedly. On Oct. 18, 2019, Zeeshan Zaidi, the former head of the company’s artist services division, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and intrude into others’ computer in the scheme. Live Nation has also been the subject of years of investigation for civil violations by federal officials. And the company is under a Justice Department consent decree for antitrust violation regarding online sales in the wake of its 2010 merger with Ticketmaster, the largest ticket sales company. The Astroworld Festival tragedy occurred as concert promoter Live Nation was raising its profile in the Houston area. The company developed 713 Music Hall, the new, 5000-capacity concert venue at Post Houston, the shopping/restaurant/entertainment complex in the former Barbara Jordan Post Office in downtown. The venue opens Nov. 17 with a performance from Willie Nelson. That show will be followed over several weeks by appearances from Rufus Du Sol, Megan Thee Stallion, Maná, Evanescence and Chelsea Handler. In addition, Live Nation is opening new offices at the Montrose Collective, the 197,000-square-foot mixed-use development on Westheimer between Grant and Crocker Streets in the heart of Montrose. Cary Darling contributed to this report gabrielle.banks@chron.com

Astroworld promoters oversaw other events where concertgoers trampled fellow fans, broke barricades

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