A trustee of Fyre Festival has filed multiple lawsuits in order to retain money payments made to Blink-182, Kendall Jenner, and Emily Ratajkowski.
One case seeks $500,000 back from Blink-182, a scheduled headliner who dropped out shortly before its catastrophic launch. Meanwhile, festival advocate Kendall Jenner is being sued for $275,000 for false promotions on Instagram. Emily Ratajkowski is facing her own charges of $300,000 for similar social media advertising.
In 2017, the Fyre Festival earned vigorous viral attention after hundreds made the trip to an island in the Bahamas. Attendees, after investing in a $1,200 ticket, were under the impression that their luxurious stay would include high-quality living arrangements, gourmet food, and even private yachts. Instead, they arrived to find scarce food, hurricane-relief tent structures, and a limited way off the island. Promised performances by artists like Kanye West, Soulja Boy, and Waka Flocka Flame and never happened.
This is part of an attempt to understand what happened to the money paid to talent by founder Bill McFarland. McFarland admitted to defrauding investors of $26 million and over $100,000 in ticket-selling schemes. He is currently serving a six-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to several fraud charges.
The fiasco has regained popularity since the release of a few documentaries about it on Hulu and Netflix.
