Fyre Festival News: Ja Rule Apologizes For Bahamas Disaster, Organizers Hit With $100 Million Lawsuit

The first ever Fyre Festival was planned to blow festival goers away last weekend. And it did, only in a more ‘I can’t believe this is happening to me’ kind of way. And for their efforts, or lack-there-of, the organizers are now being served with a $100 million lawsuit.

Billed as an upscale Coachella and offering luxurious amenities including fancy tents and culinary wonders, Fyre failed to deliver on nearly all promises. After delayed flights, which were promised to be VIP ready 737s, festival goers arrived to The Exumas in the Bahamas, an island formerly owned by Pablo Escobar, to find their luggage dumped out of cargo crates in pitch dark on Friday, April 28.

The luxurious dwellings were actually disaster relief tents and some of them had been blown away by a storm earlier that morning. The staff, overwhelmed with the constant flow of guests tried to be accommodating but little could be done.

Like the tents, the food also proved to be underwhelming – some guests received deconstructed ham and cheese sandwiches.

Quickly, the festival was postponed and festival goers, who payed anywhere from $450 to $250,000, where stranded and on lockdown. Soon after, Fyre Festival was canceled and guests were slowly sent back to Miami.

The festival was founded by Billy McFarland and Ja Rule, who both shared a love for “technology, the ocean, and rap music,” according to Fyre’s website. With Ja Rule in charge of booking the talent, McFarland attempted to build the island into a mini-city. The island had very little infrastructure and was without proper sewage or water systems. Ultimately, it was a bigger project both McFarland and Ja Rule expected and was far from finished by the opening weekend.

Ja Rule both apologized for the disaster and detracted blame from himself on Twitter. “I truly apologize as this is NOT MY FAULT…but I am taking responsibility I’m deeply sorry to everyone who was inconvenienced by this,” the rapper’s tweet read.

As an apology, Fyre Festival is offering a full refund to all guests as well as VIP tickets to their show next year, which will take place in the United States and hopefully have running water and sewage.

“All festival goers this year will be refunded in full. We will be working on refunds over the next few days and will be in touch directly with guests with more details. Also, all guests from this year will have free VIP passes to next year’s festival,” the website reads.

Despite their efforts to make things right, Ja Rule and McFarland have been served with a $100 million class-action lawsuit claiming fraud, breach of contract, breach of covenant of good faith, and negligent misrepresentation on part of the organizers. Kendall Jenner, Bella Hadid and Emily Ratajkowski were also named in the suit but not in the complaint – all three appeared in ads and promotional videos for the festival.