Hours after Travis Scott revealed on Tuesday (Aug. 8) that he was gearing up for a U.S. tour in help of his just-released chart-topping Utopia album, the mayor of his hometown, Houston, confirmed that the rapper has booked a gig on the metropolis’s Toyota Heart later this yr.
Whereas Scott has not revealed any of the dates or venues for the outing but, apart from to tease on Instagram “UTOPIA TOUR SOON, US AND EURO DATES SOON TO BE ANNOUNCE, I MISS THE ROAD I MISSS YALLL,” the Houston gig is notable as a result of it is going to mark the primary time for the reason that Astroworld tragedy two years in the past that the rapper will take the stage within the metropolis.
In accordance with ABC 13, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner launched a press release on Tuesday that Scott and his promotion companions “booked the Toyota Heart for a live performance in October.” Turner additionally famous that the 19,000-seat area is a special sort of venue than the one which hosted Astroworld in 2021, the parking zone at NRG, the place 10 folks died and tons of had been injured throughout a lethal crowd crush. Scott and Reside Nation are nonetheless going through numerous civil lawsuits over Astroworld.
“The Toyota Heart has been a great associate with the Metropolis of Houston, and we count on this to proceed for this and each different live performance. Earlier than right now’s announcement, Toyota Heart representatives convened conferences with public security officers and the Metropolis’s particular occasions workplace,” the mayor’s assertion learn. “They are going to proceed working collectively to make sure this live performance’s security, not in contrast to the numerous different live shows and occasions held at Toyota Heart annually.”
A grand jury in Houston determined in June that neither Scott nor the organizers of the competition would face legal expenses within the incident following a 19-month investigation that discovered there was not sufficient proof to help legal expenses towards the rapper or different people who organized the occasion.
Although Scott has not confirmed the Houston date, KPRC 2 reported that native regulation enforcement companies advised the station that leaders within the Houston Police Division weren’t happy with the information. “The HPOU discovered early final week that Travis Scott could be returning to Houston for 2 live performance dates. October nineteenth, and November the twentieth, had been the dates wherein had been proposed for the return. Like most we had been in full disbelief,” learn a press release from HPD Union president Douglas Griffith after what was reportedly a tense assembly with the HPD and numerous officers who expressed their frustrations and security considerations in regards to the upcoming present by the rapper who up to now has inspired his followers to “rage” at his exhibits.
“Solely days after the discharge of a 1,200-page report describing the tragic occasions that came about throughout his Astroworld Live performance, we’re suggested simply days later that there will likely be one other,” the HPD assertion continued. “That is outrageous and the HPOU will likely be calling for all of our elected officers to face up and say, Not in our metropolis, not once more! We really don’t wish to ever make a press release just like the one two weeks in the past asking for prayers for the households of these misplaced at a Travis Scott live performance.”
At press time a spokesperson for tour promoter Reside Nation couldn’t be reached for touch upon the HPD’s reported considerations.
Scott celebrated the discharge of Utopia with a live performance at Rome’s Circus Maximus over the weekend which featured a shock look from disgraced rapper Kanye West (who now goes by Ye.) Utopia shot to a No. 1 debut on the Billboard 200 albums chart dated Aug. 12, marking the third-biggest week of 2023 for any album and the most important for any R&B/hip-hop or rap launch.
