HOUSTON — A signed contract reveals the Astroworld Festival promoter was required to have a minimum $1 million insurance policy for the event.
The agreement was signed in late August between Scoremore Holdings, a Live Nation subsidiary, and SMG, a division of ASM Global Parent which manages events for NRG park.
The 45-page document lays out the terms for everything from security to sound to who was responsible for portable toilets at the event.
Promoter Scoremore agreed to pay a $250,000 flat fee to rent the parking lot and would receive 100% of all ticketing revenues while SMG would retain parking fees. Security and emergency medical services were to paid by Scoremore.
The contract required the promoter to secure commercial general liability insurance with limits of “not less than $1 million per occurrence” for bodily injury and property damage and $2 million general aggregate coverage. The contract further defines “occurrence-based” coverage as “not claims made,” potentially meaning festival victims would have to split up the $1 million policy.
“I’m fairly confident that a court would say it’s going to be one occurrence,” said Brent Cooper, a Dallas-based attorney specializing in insurance litigation.
“It’s not the fact that one person may have suffocated or one personal have gotten crushed.”
Cooper called the minimum insurance requirements “grossly inadequate” to address the risks presented, particularly with a performer like Travis Scott. Scott has a history of crowd control issues at his concerts, including pleading guilty himself to disorderly conduct for an incident at a 2018 concert in Arkansas.
There were problems at his previous show at NRG Park, too.
“The fences had been stormed once before, they were not unaware of this,” said retired University of Houston Professor Michael Olivas.
Olivas specializes in entertainment law and hosts the syndicated radio show “The Law of Rock and Roll.”
He said the contract did not take Travis Scott’s track record into account, and without that factored in, the $1 million minimum aligns with industry standards.
“I believe that this was a boilerplate,” Olivas said. “My research suggests that all the amounts were fair and did not, they were not out of the ordinary.”
As part of the City of Houston permitting process, NRG Parks’ management filed a certificate of liability insurance. It lists $ 1million for personal injury limits and $25 million of umbrella liability.
It is unclear whether any of the parties involved had additional coverage.
With nearly 100 lawsuits already filed in Harris County district court, Cooper said even if the insurance limits are maxed out, liability is a separate issue and plaintiff’s attorneys will undoubtedly be seeking more.
“If there are claims above and beyond the insurance, they can still collect it from NRG, or the promoter or the performer, assuming they have the assets,” Cooper said.
A spokesperson for NRG Park did not have any comment on its insurance coverage or what was required of the promoter.
Scoremore Holdings did not return requests for comment.