Organisers of Fyre Festival „barred” from hosting another event in the Bahamas
The founders of Fyre Festival, Ja Rule and Billy McFarland, have been „barred” from organising another event in the Bahamas next year, according to the Independent.
The Bahamas Ministry of Tourism does not want Fyre Festival to return in 2018, so it plans to introduce a „stricter vetting system” for music festivals in the future, as the Complex reports.
McFarland, a tech entrepreneur, had previously said that he intends to host another edition of Fyre Festival in 2018. In an interview for the Rolling Stone, he said: “We were a little naive in thinking for the first time we could do this ourselves. Next year, we will definitely start earlier. The reality is, we weren’t experienced enough to keep up.”
loading...
Fyre Festival was deemed a “cultural moment created from an alchemic blend of music, art and food”, highly promoted by socially-influent celebrities, such as Kendall Jenner, Bella Hadid and Hailey Baldwin. The prices of tickets varied between $1,500 and $12,000. The most expensive tickets promised access to yacht parties, luxury accommodation and gourmet food. However, the event turned into a chaotic mess when guests arrived and found that the luxury they’ve been promised was lacking in basic essentials, like safe accommodation, decent food and drink or electricity.
Blink-182 were set to perform at the festival. They pulled out at the last minute, saying they were “not confident that we would have what we need to give you the quality of performances we always give fans”.
An official from the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism apologized to festival-goers on behalf of the nation: “Hundreds of visitors to [the island of] Exuma were met with total chaos. Clearly [the organizers of Fyre Festival] did not have the capacity to execute an event of this scale.”
Fyre Festival is offering guest of this year’s edition either a refund or the chance to exchange their tickets for additional passes for next year’s festival. A statement on their site reads: “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.”
Mark Geragos, lawyer, has filed a lawsuit worth of $100 million against Ja Rule, Billy McFarland and the Fyre Media brand, accusing them of fraud, breach if contract, breach of covenant of good faith and negligent misrepresentation.
Loading...