$100M Fyre Festival Class Action Calls Event a ‘Get-Rich-Quick Scam’

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The organizers of the Fyre Festival have been hit with a class action lawsuit by an angry festival-goer who claims the event that was promoted as a “posh, island-based music festival” turned out to be more like “Lord of the Flies” or “The Hunger Games” than the popular California music festival 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,’ exposed on a sand bar, that were soaked and battered by wind and rain,” plaintiff Daniel Jung alleges in the Fyre Festival class action lawsuit.

To make matters worse, festival attendees were told that the event was “cashless” and were instructed to upload funds to a wristband rather than bringing cash. However, this left many attendees without the ability to use taxis or busses for transportation, as they only accept cash, the lawsuit claims.

“As a result of Defendants’ roadblocks to escape, at least one attendee suffered a medical emergency and lost consciousness after being locked inside a nearby building with other concert-goers waiting to be airlifted from the island,” the Fyre Festival class action lawsuit says.

The defendants named in the Fyre Festival class action lawsuit include Billy McFaland, Jeffrey Atkins a/k/a Ja Rule, and Fyre Media Inc.

The Fyre Festival fiasco was documented by many festival-goers on social media, who posted about their experiences under the hashtag #FyreFraud, Jung says in the Fyre Festival class action lawsuit.

Jung asserts the festival organizers had known for months that the festival grounds lacked the infrastructure needed to provide adequate food services and accommodations. The Fyre Festival class action lawsuit claims that the organizers were aware that the festival would pose a significant danger to attendees but continued to promote the event.

“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 Fyre Festival class action lawsuit says.

Despite providing warnings to performers and celebrities, the organizers failed to warn attendees until after thousands of people had already arrived at the festival site and became stranded there without access to food, water or shelter.

Jung says that the Fyre Festival was nothing but a “get-rich-quick scam” and that the organizers induced attendees to pay exorbitant prices to attend the festival without regard for the dangers they would face upon arriving on a remote island.

The Fyre Festival class action lawsuit points to many deceptive claims made by the organizers in order to promote the event, including the false claim that the festival would be held in the Bahamas on a “private island” previously owned by drug kingpin Pablo Escobar. Escobar never owned the island, Jung says, and there is a Sandals resort just down the road. The defendants reportedly began promoting the festival in December 2016.

Ticket packages, which were advertised as including first-class food and luxury accommodations, ranged in price from $1,200 to more than $100,000 per person.

The Fyre Festival class action lawsuit asserts claims for intentional misrepresentation, negligent misrepresentation, breach of contract, and breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing.

Jung is seeking damages in excess of $100 million on behalf of himself and putative Class Members.

The plaintiff is represented by Mark J. Geragos, Ben J. Meiselas, Zack V. Muljat and Alex Alarcon of Geragos & Geragos APC.

The Fyre Festival Class Action Lawsuit is Daniel Jung v. Billy McFarland, et al., Case No. 2:17-cv-03245, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

UPDATE: On July 27, 2017, duped ticketholders who shelled out thousands of dollars to attend the failed Fyre Festival asked a federal court to centralize their class action lawsuits in California, New York or Florida.

UPDATE 2: On Jan. 28, 2019, Instagram influencers such as Kendall Jenner may be subpoenaed in a Fyre Festival bankruptcy case following a recent court order.

UPDATE 3: On July 10, 2019, a federal judge dismissed claims against rapper Ja Rule and Fyre CMO Grant Margolin in a class action lawsuit filed by Fyre Festival attendees who claim that the infamous festival was not the luxury experience that was advertised.

UPDATE 4: On June 19, 2020, a proposed Class of Fyre Festival ticket holders have asked a federal judge in New York to order the ill-fated festival’s founder to pay them $7.5 million.