Hulu removes Astroworld tragedy documentary after backlash
The deadly concert event left 10 people dead, including an 8-year-old boy.
The backlash over a Hulu documentary about the Astroworld music festival tragedy released on Wednesday led to the streamer pulling the documentary less than a day later.
Hulu released Astroworld: Concert From Hell on Dec. 1 with little promotion. But once social media caught wind of it, users dragged the company for attempting to profit off the deadly concert event that left 10 people dead, including an 8-year-old boy, Rolling Stone reports.
“Travis Scott’s Astroworld Festival was supposed to be the concert of a lifetime,” the Hulu synopsis reads. “But it turned into a tragic nightmare. A minute-by-minute look at what happened in the crowd, the young victims who were killed, and what happens next.”
As reported by The Hollywood Reporter, a Hulu spokesperson said the 50-minute documentary “was an investigative local news special from ABC13/KTRK-TV in Houston that originally aired on Nov. 20.”
The streaming service added, “This was not a Hulu documentary and has since been removed to avoid confusion.”
Ten people died as a result of injuries they received Nov. 5 during day one of the planned two-day Astroworld music festival at NRG Stadium in Houston, theGrio reported. Day two of the event was canceled after security personnel and other staffers lost control of the crowd when a surge led to attendees being trampled in its wake.
More than 100 lawsuits have been filed since. According to TMZ, Scott and Drake, as well as companies including Apple, Live Nation, the Harris County Sports and Convention Corporation and Epic Records, which is Scott’s Cactus Jack label’s home, have been sued for $750 million by more than 125 fans who attended the festival.
The lawsuit, filed in Houston, alleges that Scott and the organizers of his music extravaganza were negligent in “failing to properly plan the concert, train security personnel and host a safe event.”
Drake was a surprise guest, joining Scott on stage.
Attorney Tony Buzbee told TMZ that “no amount of money will ever make these Plaintiffs whole; no amount of money can restore human life. But, the damages sought in this case attempts to fix, help or make up for the harms and losses suffered by these Plaintiffs — nothing more and nothing less.”
“This concert was doomed from the beginning,” Buzbee told Houston news channel KHOU. “It was doomed before they filed their operations plan.”
More than 50,000 people attended the 2021 Astroworld Festival, which was founded in 2018. During the 2019 festival, three fans were injured in a similar crowd-surging occurrence. The concert was put on hold for 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, and the 2021 event marked the return of what was set to be an annual event in Scott’s native city.
This article contains additional reporting from Biba Adams.
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