LOS ANGELES — Days after Fyre Festival organizers Ja Rule and Billy McFarland postponed their April 28-30 and May 5-7 event indefinitely, attorney Mark Geragos filed suit on behalf of plaintiff Daniel Jung, one of the attendees affected. The suit, which alleges fraud and breach of contract, seeks class action status and damages of more than $100 million.
A crowd of festival attendees spending thousands of dollars on tickets and airfare arrived to chaos and confusion at the partially-completed festival site instead. While attendees were left, literally, in the dark, the suit alleges that performers and celebrities slated to attend were tipped off early that the festival was not going to happen as planned.
McFarland and Ja Rule blamed the epic failure on logistical difficulties, including rough weather that flattened tents and soaked mattresses shortly before attendees arrived. Citing their inability to, in effect, “build a city” on the remote location with little existing infrastructure, they promised full refunds and free VIP passes to the next Fyre Festival, now planned for 2018.
As of Sunday, April 30, most of the attendees had managed to return home and the festival site was on lockdown by Bahamian authorities, according to reports. ABC News noted that “customs has the area on lockdown because [festival organizer] Billy [McFarland] has not paid customs duty taxes on the items that he imported” for the event, adding that McFarland and his staff “have left the items with a security company guarding it.”
For a related story, go to http://plsn.com/wp/international-news/22671
