The Fan Petition To Have Travis Scott Perform At Coachella Takes Strange Turn
Travis Scott lost the majority of his mainstream supporters in the aftermath of the devastating Astroworld Music Festival tragedy in November 2021. The mass casualty event claimed the lives of 10 concertgoers and injured many others when a deadly surge overwhelmed the crowd at Scott's concert in his native Houston, Texas. Officials announced about a month after the event that the 10 victims died from compression asphyxia, a result of the hellish conditions that concertgoers faced that evening, according to NBC News.
Scott was accused of failing to stop his set amid the emergency in the crowd. In an initial statement, the singer wrote on Twitter, "I'm absolutely devastated by what took place last night." Fans were unimpressed by Scott's response to the tragedy and pushed for the musician to face career consequences for Astroworld. As a result, Scott was pulled from multiple music festivals, including the upcoming 2022 Coachella festival. Scott's diehard fans stepped in to voice their support for the performer getting booted from the famed California festival and launched an online petition to reverse the ban the following year, TMZ reported.
While the petition appeared to show that Scott had fallen back into public favor after Astroworld, a detail about the petition has led the effort to take a strange turn.
Travis Scott's fans faked widespread support
The Change.org petition to get Travis Scott to headline Coachella 2023 amassed nearly 70,000 signatures, Complex reported. The apparent outcry of support for the scandalized music star was short-lived, however, when it was revealed the majority of the signatures were phony, according to BuzzFeed News. "Our team identified patterns of fraudulent activity and removed the corresponding signatures that were seen on this petition," a Change.org spokesperson told the outlet, confirming about 60,000 signatures were faked by Scott fans. The petition was then taken down, though it is uncertain if the move was made by the petition organizer or the platform itself.
Fans are still pushing for Scott to take the Coachella mainstage this year by way of his family friend, Kanye "Ye" West. The "Yeezus" rapper replaced Scott's open slot as the 2022 headliner after the Astroworld tragedy, per Variety. As both musicians are linked by their relationships to members of the Kardashian family, it has been speculated West may lend the invite to Scott. After all, West recently thanked Scott for providing him with the address to his daughter Chicago's birthday party amid his ongoing divorce war with estranged wife Kim Kardashian, per TMZ. Fans are now hoping Scott will cash in West's favor for a guest appearance at the desert music festival.