Fyre Festival

Fyre Festival was a fraudulent luxury music festival organized by businessman Billy McFarland and rapper Ja Rule. It was created to promote the company's Fyre app for booking music talent. The festival was scheduled to take place on April 28–30 and May 5–7, 2017, on the Bahamian island of Great Exuma.

The event was promoted on Instagram by social media influencers, actors, reality TV stars and models including Kendall Jenner, Bella Hadid, Hailey Baldwin, and Emily Ratajkowski.

When the event opened, it had many problems relating to security, food, shelter, medical services, and artist relations, causing the event to be cancelled. Many people paid a large amount of money which was said to go to 'gourmet' food options and 'luxury' shelter, however they only received packed sandwiches and were forced to stay in tents.

In March 2018, McFarland pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud to defraud investors and ticket holders, and a second count to defraud a ticket vendor. In October 2018, McFarland was sentenced to six years in prison and ordered to give out US$26 million. At least eight lawsuits began against the organizers for defrauding ticket buyers.

Two documentaries about the events of the festival were released in 2019: Hulu's Fyre Fraud, and Netflix's Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened.

On April 9, 2023, Billy McFarland said that there was to be a Fyre Festival II.

References

Category:April 2017 events
Category:Music festivals
Category:Kendall Jenner