FESTIVAL OF FRAUD

THREE YEARS AFTER THE FAILED FYRE MUSIC FESTIVAL, MANY ARE STILL PAYING THE PRICE FOR THEIR INVOLVEMENT

It seems like only yesterday that Fyre Festival CEO Billy McFarland fleeced tens of thousands of dollars out of starry-eyed festivalgoers and workers. They were lured with the promise of a luxury starstudded music festival in the Bahamas, co-founded by rapper Ja Rule in 2017. Instead, what the would-be revellers received was a nightmare, which Netflix later documented in Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened.

Now, three years on, legal proceedings surrounding the failed party are still ongoing. The latest big-name celebrity to face the music was model Kendall Jenner who, on May 21, reportedly agreed to pay $137,000 in damages after she was sued in connection to a promotional Instagram post. The influencer had been paid $418,000 to promote the ticket sales – which sold out within 48 hours – via the since-deleted social media post. She had also failed to disclose the fact that she had received payment for the post, according to the lawsuit.

In August 2019, bankruptcy attorney Gregory Messer sued several of the festival organisers and associated celebrities, including Jenner, in an effort to recover investors’, performers’, caterers’ and transport companies’ financial losses, after festival-goers arrived to find wet mattresses, pop-up tents, cheap meals and no access to toilets and drinking water.