Travis Scott will no longer perform as a headliner at next year’s Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. The lineup change comes after last month’s mass casualty event that occurred during the rapper’s set at his festival Astroworld, and resulted in the deaths of ten attendees.
The festival’s producer, Goldenvoice reportedly cancelled Scott’s performance. First confirmed as a headliner in 2020, he was set to lead the festival alongside Rage Against The Machine. In the wake of Astroworld, a Change.org petition was created, demanding his removal from Coachella’s lineup. So far, 60,000 people have signed the online petition.
Per Variety, Coachella informed Scott’s longtime agent, Cara Lewis, of its plan to remove Scott from the roster and pay a kill fee for the cancelation (typically 25%). Apparently, Lewis had been adamant on keeping the slot, which would have marked Scott’s return to the stage.
According to Consequence, Scott even offered to play the festival for free, and was still turned down by the company. It’s unclear who will replace Scott, but Coachella revealed Swedish House Mafia as its third headliner in October.
In the weeks following the tragedy, Scott has issued a formal apology and offered to pay for the victims’ funerals, but his offer was mostly turned down. Last week, in his first interview since Astroworld, the rapper sat down with Charlamagne Tha God where he said he had no idea people were injured or dead until the police press conference late Friday, November 5.
In addition to the lack of concerts for the foreseeable future, Scott has also been named in a pile of lawsuits alongside event organizer Live Nation and Drake, summing up to $2 billion in damages. The rapper has filed a request to dismiss several of the lawsuits.
The Coachella festival is scheduled to take place on the weekends of April 15-17 and April 22-24 at the Empire Polo Grounds in Indio, California.