After a disastrous weekend spent trying to get attendees off a remote island in the Bahamas, organizers of the Fyre Festival were served with more bad news late Sunday night. Celebrity trial attorney Mark Geragos has begun the proceedings to seek up to $100 million on behalf of ticket holders who, per the court filing, found the failed music and art festival to be "closer to ‘The Hunger Games’ or ‘Lord of the Flies’ than Coachella."
Organizers accused of fraud, breach of contract, and more
When guests began arriving on the islands of Exhumas in the Bahamas last Thursday, it quickly became clear that the Fyre Festival would not live up to their luxury expectations.
Instead of private yachts and catered meals from some of Hollywood's hottest chefs, they were served cold sandwiches in foam containers and found accommodation in disaster relief tents.
After spending thousands of dollars to attend the event over two weekends, people were quickly ushered back to the airport by officials from the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism who were anxious to see travelers returned home safely.
The lawsuit filing seeks damages for fraud, breach of contract, breach of covenant of good faith and negligent misrepresentation from the organizers of the Fyre Festival, a team headed by 25-year-old app creator Billy McFarland and rapper Ja Rule. Garages expects that he will be able to find at least 150 plaintiffs to join the the suit over the coming week.
We just filed Federal Class Action against Fyre Media for festival of horror. Refunding ticket price is not enough! @markgeragos pic.twitter.com/5CsNtQ6yjh
— Ben Meiselas (@meiselasb) May 1, 2017
Another lawsuit may be in the works
While there has yet to be confirmation from Ministry officials, there are rumors of the Bahamian government filing suit against the Fyre Festival as well.
TMZ has found sources who claim the Ministry of Tourism "stands to lose out on millions with the festival being called off" and that its officials have been "devastated" by the turn of events.
According to news reports from the island, the event site has been placed under "lockdown" by government officials and security has been put in place to secure what remains of the festival.
ABC News has alleged that McFarland neglected to pay customs fees on items imported for the festival, including an ambulance brought in from New York. As organizers seemed to lack funds to pay the music artists booked to performed at the festival, it is unclear how -- or if -- they will go about cleaning up the festival site.
Due to questions surrounding the organizers' ability to pay the plaintiffs in this case, there has been speculation that Geragos may look to some of the celebrity "influencers" who promoted the festival online. Models Kendall Jenner, Bella Hadid and Emily Ratajkowski have all been named in the filing as using their social media accounts "to generate ticket sales" for the Fyre Festival.
Neither Ja Rule nor Billy McFarland have responded to the court filing. The Fyre Festival has offered all guests from this year's event free tickets to next year's festival, expected to take place in the U.S. next May.
