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The team behind the doomed Fyre Festival have been banned from doing repeat business in the Bahamas, TMZ reported, citing sources at the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism.
The Fyre Festival, which was supposed to be a weekend of luxury and music performances on Great Exuma in the Bahamas, had been organized by rapper Ja Rule and tech entrepreneur Billy McFarland.
What happened instead was an epic disaster, with stranded attendees complaining of half-built tents, inadequate food and drinks, and canceled performances.
According to TMZ, the Bahamas tourism board also plans to be more strict when vetting future festivals to be planned there, and will check in with organizers several times in the process.
Ja Rule and McFarland, who is also the founder of Magnises, are now facing a lawsuit filed on Sunday by Mark Geragos, a celebrity trial lawyer. The suit was filed in the US District Court for the Central District of California, and Geragos is seeking class-action status with an anticipated 150 participants. The plaintiff is Daniel Jung.
Jung is accusing the organizers of fraud, breach of contract, breach of covenant of good faith, and negligent misrepresentation. The lawsuit seeks at least $ 100 million in damages.
“More troublingly, Mr. McFarland and Mr. Atkins began personally reaching out to performers and celebrities in advance of the festival and warned them not to attend — acknowledging the fact that the festival was outrageously underequipped and potentially dangerous for anyone in attendance,” the lawsuit says. “Nevertheless, defendants refused to warn attendees about the dangerous conditions awaiting them on the island. Defendants only ‘canceled’ the event on the morning of the first day — after thousands of attendees had already arrived and were
stranded, without food, water, or shelter.”
Facebook.com/fyrefestival
A host of supermodels had promoted the festival on social media, including Kendall Jenner, Hailey Baldwin, Emily Ratajkowski, and Bella Hadid. Blink-182, Major Lazer, Migos, Tyga, and Disclosure were among the artists scheduled to perform, according to the festival’s promotions.
Tickets started at $ 1,200, but reports have said some attendees paid close to or over $ 100,000 for the weekend.
