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Last week, Fyre Festival offered an incredible, once-in-a-lifetime experience for attendees who took the trip to the Bahamian music festival. It was a curated, multi-sensory spectacle that gave wealthy people the chance to show off their wilderness survival skills and enter a real life Hunger Games. Some people apparently didn't appreciate being stranded on a tarmac for hours with no rescue in sight, however. And some of those people have now filed a $100 million lawsuit.
The federal class action lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California by celebrity trial lawyer Mark Geragos, who has previously represented the likes of Michael Jackson, Winona Ryder, Gary Condit, Susan McDougal, and Scott Peterson. The suit, which was filed on behalf of attendee Daniel Jung against the Fyre Festival and its organizers Ja Rule and Billy McFarland, states that they anticipate a class of "more than 150" plaintiffs for whom it seeks a minimum of $100 million. The suit refers to the event as "complete disaster," "mass chaos" and a "post-apocalyptic nightmare."
The festival’s lack of adequate food, water, shelter, and medical care created a dangerous and panicked situation among attendees — suddenly finding themselves stranded on a remote island without basic provisions — that was closer to The Hunger Games or Lord Of The Flies than Coachella. Festival-goers survived on bare rations, little more than bread and a slice of cheese, and tried to escape the elements in the only shelter provided by Defendants: small clusters of “FEMA tents.”
The suit also raises the fact that, as has been widely reported in the days since the festival was abruptly cancelled, the organizers were aware beforehand "that their festival was dangerously under-equipped and posed a serious danger to anyone in attendance," and they had "began personally reaching out to performers and celebrities in advance of the festival and warned them not to attend."
This sums up Fyre Festival. #fyre #fyrefestival #fyrefest pic.twitter.com/x4xcFBL8Yg
— William N. Finley IV(It’s real. I made it up) (@WNFIV) April 28, 2017
The dinner that @fyrefestival promised us was catered by Steven Starr is literally bread, cheese, and salad with dressing. #fyrefestival pic.twitter.com/I8d0UlSNbd
— Trevor DeHaas (@trev4president) April 28, 2017
The lawsuit, which includes lots of tweets as evidence of the organizer's unpreparedness and liability, also includes this detail:
At the same time, however, Defendants were knowingly lying about the festival’s accommodations and safety, and continued to promote the event and sell ticket packages. The festival was even promoted as being on a “private island” once owned by drug kingpin Pablo Escobar—the island isn’t private, as there is a “Sandals” resort down the road, and Pablo Escobar never owned the island.
And here's another statement from the law firm, who argue that refunding ticket prices is not enough:
Official Statement on #Fyrefestival Class Action pic.twitter.com/YjMYdLbCvn
— Ben Meiselas (@meiselasb) May 1, 2017
McFarland has already announced dates for Fyre Fest 2018, which this year's attendees would be able to attend for free... though it seems improbable that it will actually take place.
You can peruse the entire lawsuit below.
