On Tuesday (August 8), Travis Scott asserted that the tour to support his newest studio album UTOPIA will be announced “soon.” Simultaneously, Ticketmaster slipped up and accidentally revealed the cities Scott plans to visit on tour, soon taking down the mistakenly-uploaded ticket pages. Among these shows, though, is one in Scott’s hometown of Houston, Texas, where he is alleged to be performing on October 19 at the Toyota Center.
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This would mark Scott’s first performance in the city since the catastrophic Astroworld Festival in November 2021, where numerous crowd surges took the lives of 10 people. On the day UTOPIA released (July 28), the Houston Police Department released a report containing more than 1,000 pages of their Astroworld investigation, which highlighted the communication Scott may have had with organizers of the festival during his fatal performance. A week later, news broke of a third family who lost a loved one at Astroworld settling their lawsuit with Scott and company.
[RELATED: Travis Scott Confirms Utopia Tour is Coming “Soon”]
Though fans are still awaiting final confirmation from Scott regarding his tour dates, it seems the news of the October 19 show has already permeated through to the city of H-town’s higher-ups and has garnered mixed responses. Later on Tuesday, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner addressed Scott’s impending return, revealing that the rapper has “booked the Toyota Center for a concert in October.”
“The Toyota Center has been a good partner with the City of Houston, and we expect this to continue for this and every other concert,” Turner said in a statement. “Before today’s announcement, Toyota Center representatives convened meetings with public safety officials and the City’s special events office. They will continue working together to ensure this concert’s safety, not unlike the many other concerts and events held at Toyota Center each year.”
While Turner seems to be convinced that the UTOPIA show will go on without a hitch, HPD is not sold. Through a statement made by HPD Union President Douglas Griffith upon hearing the news, it’s clear that police in the city have reservations about Scott.
“The HPOU found out early last week that Travis Scott would be returning to Houston for two concert dates,” Griffith told Houston NBC affiliate station KPRC. “October 19th and November the 20th were the dates in which were proposed for the return. Like most, we were in complete disbelief. Only days after the release of a 1200-page report describing the tragic events that took place during his Astroworld Concert, we are advised just days later that there will be another. This is outrageous and the HPOU will be calling for all of our elected officials to stand up and say, ‘Not in our city, not again!’ We truly do not want to ever make a statement like the one two weeks ago asking for prayers for the families of those lost at a Travis Scott concert.”
On Monday (August 7), along with seeing UTOPIA debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, Scott warmed up for a tour with a show at the outdoor Circus Maximus venue in Rome, Italy. There, along with having the concert executed without any serious injury, Scott brought out Kanye West to perform two songs with him. It’s currently unknown who Scott plans to bring with him when he hits the road.
Photo by Alexander Tamargo/Getty Images for E11EVEN
