Fyre Festival Attendees May Be Able To Claim More Than $7K in Proposed Settlement

UPDATE: 

• The total class action settlement will amount to $2 million and was reached on April, 13 in US Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of New York. The proposed settlement still needs to be approved by the court.

After nearly four years of litigation in the aftermath of the ill-fated Fyre Festival, a proposed settlement has been reached with 277 ticket holders and event organizers.  

The settlement agreement, if approved, will result in $7,220 payouts to event attendees, according to Billboard, which first reported the deal. However, warned the lawyer representing the plaintiffs, the infamous disaster of an event is involved with many creditors and some ticket holders may not see the total class action rebate.  

“It’s a small but significant step for ticketholders who were defrauded and had their lives up ended as a result of the fraudulent conduct by [Fyre founder Billy] McFarland,” the plaintiffs’ attorney told Variety. 

Indeed, in 2017, founder Billy McFarland and other organizers of the Fyre Festival were hit with a class action lawsuit by an angry festival-goer who claimed 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. 

Despite paying thousands to attend the event, “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,” claimed the class action which sought $100 million in damages, including $7.5 million to be paid by the founder of the event, McFarland.  

A number of class action lawsuits followed, along with a federal indictment of McFarland on wire fraud charges, along with bankruptcy. McFarland reportedly pled guilty and is currently serving a six-year prison sentence. In addition, McFarland has been ordered to pay certain attendees who shelled out $13,000 for a “VIP package” to the Fyre Festival $5 million, reports RollingStone.  

Others involved in the organization and marketing of the Fyre Festival have also become ensnared in the legal fallout, with several Instagram influencers facing subpoena in the bankruptcy proceedings.  

The class action settlement is not yet approved and a vote will reportedly take place on May 13.  

“Billy [McFarland] went to jail, ticket holders can get some money back, and some great documentaries were made,” the plaintiffs’ attorney told People on Thursday. “Now that’s what I call justice.”

Did you attend the ill-fated Fyre Festival? What do you think of this proposed settlement? Tell us in the comment section below.  

The lead plaintiffs and Class Members are represented by Benjamin J. Meiselas of Geragos & Geragos APC. 

The Fyre Festival Class Action Lawsuits are In re: Fyre Festival Litigation, Case No. 1:17-cv-03296, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. 

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