Brent Coon Alleges Live Nation, Travis Scott, and Others Were Negligent

PRESS ANNOUNCEMENT

11/11/2021

To view a brief video statement from Brent Coon and/or download the legal petition – click here.

Yesterday, attorney Brent Coon filed a lawsuit on behalf of Nhan Nguyen, whose son was injured at that Astroworld Festival on November 5, 2021. The lawsuit alleges that Live Nation, Travis Scott, and others were negligent in providing sufficient means to ensure that the Festival was safe for the attendees.

Mr. Coon says, “There was very poor crowd control at an SRO event which invited a rush to the stage and ensuing bedlam. Eight attendees were crushed to death on the scene and dozens of others suffered a variety of injuries and trauma. In this case, the incidence of crowd rush was VERY foreseeable and is something concert promoters are supposed to take into account in contingency planning. Gates, fences, adequate security and other crowd control platforms, etc. Seating arrangements, traffic flow, forewarnings to artists and agents, pre-concert action items and meetings. Involvement with local medical and law enforcement personal as well as detailed security briefings. Communication systems at field, gate, stage and backstage levels.”

“How do I know all this? Because I AM a concert producer and promoter. My company, Coondog Productions, has been promoting shows of this nature for over 2 decades at venues across the country. There were major planning failures at this event, and major execution failures. The results were catastrophic. Live Nation was the primary producer on this show. They have done many thousands of major events across the county and should have been much better prepared for these types of issues, particularly in light of the nature of the venue, size of the crowd, demographics of the crowd, and the historical patterns of behavior surrounding their lead artist, Travis Scott, who has a history of trying to work the crowd into a frenzy.”

“The issue of crowd compression and “stage rush” has been well known in the industry for decades. Injuries and even fatalities were an all too frequent occurrence, as was noted in high profile incidents like The Who concert at Riverfront Coliseum in Ohio in 1979, which changed how the industry arranged for major events in large venues with thousands of attendees.”

“SRO events require an entirely different and higher degree of preparedness, and with the history involving Travis Scott, the invitation of a special guest like Drake, the fact that everyone was rusty in preparing for these types of events due to a 2-year shut down of such crowds and concerts due to Covid set the stage for this type of tragedy. Everyone involved should have been aware of that and taken the additional precautions those circumstances would mandate. They clearly didn’t.”

ABOUT BRENT COON: Brent Coon is the founder of the Law Offices of Brent Coon & Associates and the Texas-based music promotion company Coondog Productions. He has 35 years’ experience as a trial attorney and 30 years as a concert promoter.