NJ Congressman Takes Aim At Live Nation After Astroworld Tragedy

PATERSON, NJ — New Jersey Congressman Bill Pascrell, Jr. (NJ-9), responding to the deaths of eight people at Travis Scott's Astroworld festival in Houston this past weekend, took aim at a longtime opponent: Live Nation.

The company is facing a mounting number of lawsuits, and their stock recently took a hit, down 5 percent on Monday, after the festival the company promoted ended in tragedy. In addition to the eight deaths, as many as 300 people were injured.

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Pascrell called for the investigation into the tragedy to look into why concert organizers were ill-prepared, but also voiced concern about Live Nation's control of the live entertainment market, something his office called a "monopoly."

"I am shocked and devastated by the death and injuries at Astroworld and I feel for the victims and their families," Pascrell said.

He continued:

"The scale of destruction is unfathomable and organizers have a lot of questions to answer about why they were ill prepared for what happened. Reports suggesting festival organizers seeking to prevent deadly incidents at future live events are afraid to speak freely because they’re intimidated by Live Nation’s marketplace dominance are outrageous. For over a decade, Live Nation and its Ticketmaster partners have held absolute power over the live events market. The costs for fans, while largely financial, apparently may also include physical harm as well. Live Nation should be broken up so they might focus on people as much as they do profits."

According to a Patch report, Houston Police Chief Troy Finner met briefly with Astroworld headliner and organizer Travis Scott and his head of security Friday prior to the main event to express concerns about public safety. Read more: Chief Finner Held Astroworld Safety Brief With Travis Scott: HPD

"I asked Travis Scott and his team to work with HPD for all events over the weekend and to be mindful of his team's social media messaging on any unscheduled events," Finner said in the statement. "The meeting was brief and respectful and a chance for me to share my public safety concerns."

An investigation is ongoing, but will likely take weeks to conclude.

Live Nation is cooperating with the investigation and will turn over video from the concert for authorities to review, Finner said. Finner also made a request for concert attendees with video to send the footage to HPD for investigation.

In the meantime, reports and online videos have surfaced depicting a scene of chaos in the crowd as Scott continued performing.

The festival drew a crowd of roughly 50,000 to NRG Park in southwest Houston, and a surge that occurred roughly around the time Scott, a rapper from Houston, took the stage caused the crowd to compress, resulting in hundreds being injured and 25 taken to the hospital, according to authorities.

The Houston Chronicle reports that people began to show signs of poor health around 9:39 p.m., but Scott's set didn't finish until 10:15 p.m.

The investigation will focus on what caused the crowd surge toward the stage, Houston Fire Chief Samuel Peña said.

With reporting from Jeffrey Perkins.