The organizers of the Fyre Festival have been hit in the face with a $100-million class-action lawsuit alleging fraud and breaching of contract.
The complaint was filed on Sunday in U.S. District Court in California and it alleges fraud and breach of contract by Billy McFarland, Ja Rule aka Jeffrey Atkins and Frye Media Inc. The complaint seems to highlight various social media posts that went viral on Thursday and Friday regarding the whole situation in the Bahamas.
The popular music and lifestyle festival known as this decade’s cultural experience, has totally melted down as thousands of guests who had previously paid thousands of bucks to enjoy the weekend arrived on a private island but only to find out that the festival preparations were not finished yet. Organizers canceled the planned two-weekend event on Friday, but this happened only after the people that went there were left stranded.
The complaint was filed by the high-profile attorney Mark Geragos and it described the most tragic picture: “The festival’s lack of adequate food, water, shelter and medical care created a dangerous and panicked situation among attendees.” The event seems to have been “cashless” and this complicated things in the most horrible manner because of the festival-goers’ efforts to get home after cancellation.: “Defendants instructed attendees to upload funds to a wristband for use at the festival rather than bringing any cash. As such, attendees were unable to purchase basic transportation on local taxis or buses, which accept only cash.”
Organizers of Fyre Media Inc. offered an explanation that was issued on Friday about the whole situation and the festival itself: “As amazing as the islands are, the infrastructure for a festival of this magnitude needed to be built from the ground up. So, we decided to literally attempt to build a city. We set up water and waste management, brought an ambulance from New York, and chartered 737 planes to shuttle our guests via 12 flights a day from Miami. We thought we were ready, but then everyone arrived.”
The statement continued saying that “the team was overwhelmed. The airport was jam-packed. The buses couldn’t handle the load. And the wind from rough weather took down half of the tents on the morning our guests were scheduled to arrive. This is an unacceptable guest experience and the Fyre team takes full responsibility for the issues that occurred.”
Refunds will be issued as soon as possible and the former guests are supposed to receive VIP passes to the festival for the next year’s edition.