The Hollywood Reporter says that festival attendees Chelsea Chinery, Shannon McAuliffe and Desiree Flores are being represented by personal injury lawyer John Girardi, filing their complaint in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Tuesday. They allege that organizers lured people to Fyre Festival under false pretenses by paying celebrities and “social media influencers” to promote it. Kendall Jenner, Bella Hadid and Emily Ratajkowski are just some of the hot Instagramers in on the scam, according to Girardi, though Bella at least, has apologized.
An apology that came too late! Especially because, as the lawsuit points out, none of the promotional materials were labeled a such, nor did any of these influencers indicate that they were being compensated for promoting the festival, as required by the FTC. As a result, Chinery, McAuliffe and Flores all had to suffer through an extremely uncomfortable weekend:
Guests were promised more than 30 musical acts, including Migos, Major Lazer and Blink-182, and promotional materials showed “stunning beach side villas, yachts with models draped over the top” and more. What they found when they arrived was “horrific.”
“As Plaintiffs began to grasp the dire nature of the situation, upon witnessing the complete lack of infrastructure necessary to host such an event, a panic enveloped the crowd,” writes Girardi. “Plaintiffs were stuck on the island, with no way off.”
There is also damning evidence that McFarland and crew knew at least a month out that Fyre Festival was going to be a miserable failure, and even warned some of their more famous cohorts to avoid the island. The plaintiffs are seeking punitive damages and you can join if you bought a ticket and didn’t go, bought a ticket and tried to go but got your flight cancelled, or bought a ticket, went, and ate government cheese with the feral dogs for two days.
