Fyre Festival Organizers Hit With Two More Lawsuits
The organizers of the disastrous Fyre Festival are facing a pair of new lawsuits, bringing the total number of lawsuits against Ja Rule and Billy McFarland to five.
This week, festivalgoers filed three class action lawsuits against the “luxury” music festival, with the first backed by celebrity lawyer Mark Geragos. Two new lawsuits – filed on behalf of a New Jersey festivalgoer and a event management company – have now joined the fray.
According to Pitchfork, the Pennsylvania-based National Event Services (NES), who were hired by Fyre organizers to provide medical services for the festival, filed their lawsuit Thursday in Philadelphia, with NES claiming they suffered damages of $250,000 from the debacle.
The lawsuit – which alleges breach of contract, fraud, and negligence – details the experience of NES employees when they reached the Fyre site in the Bahamas. NES is seeking punitive damages.
NES employees “discovered that the accommodations were uninhabitable, including bug infestation, bloodstained mattresses, and no air conditioning,” and that organizers had failed to secure a medical evacuation helicopter or plane in case of emergency. The island’s medical center was also closed upon arrival April 26th.
“As a result, NES had nowhere to send any patient who may have required emergency care overnight,” the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit also accuses McFarland and Ja Rule of “falsely misrepresented critical facts” about the festival, including the “capitalization necessary” to conduct a large music festival in the Bahamas; many of the artists and vendors “remained unpaid in the weeks leading up” up Fyre Festival, with Blink-182 ultimately canceling their headlining appearance due to non-payment, the lawsuit alleges.
Ja Rule and McFarland also “embarked on a campaign of incompetence, fraud and deceit in the provision of information not only to Plaintiff, but also to virtually any third-party vendor associated with the 2017 festival as well as the people who had purchased tickets.”
One of those ticket buyers, Andrew Petrozziello, filed his own lawsuit in a New Jersey federal court, with the suit stating that Fyre organizer violated state consumer fraud act and breach of contract.
Although Petrozziello never reached the festival site, he was among the ticket buyers to arrive in Miami only to learn that his flight to the Bahamas was canceled when the festival was postponed after organizers realized they were woefully unprepared. Petrozziello, who paid $1,100 for Fyre tickets, was forced to pay for his own flight home out of pocket.
The lawsuit adds that, despite the promise to refund festivalgoers’ tickets, “to date, no refunds have been issued.”