You all remember Fyre Festival, right? You know, the festival that was hyped up by Bella Hadid and Kendall Jenner as the festival of the year, but ended up most resembling Scott Disick: a drunken mess. While we all had a great time following the drama on Twitter and Instagram, the festival caused a lot of real pain, and its organizers—Ja Rule and Billy McFarland—have been hit with as many as a dozen lawsuits. In addition to the festival’s $100 million lawsuit, Fyre Festival is now under FBI Investigation, according to The New York Times. Uh oh.
According to the Times, the FBI is investigating accusations of mail, wire and security fraud. There are literally thousands of people who have fallen victim to the Fyre Festival’s alleged fraud. You know, all of the attendees who paid at least $1,200 for the festival’s tickets, according to Business Insider. And even Fyre Festival employees have been duped by the festival’s organizers.
According to VICE, McFarland revealed in a leaked tape that the festival’s employees would not get paid. Apparently, they could continue to work at Fyre Media as unpaid employees, which is a bit of a contradiction. After all, the definition of an employee is someone who received wages or a salary. I feel like the word McFarland is looking for is “volunteers,” though granted, volunteers aren’t typically hired as paid employees and then told they won’t be getting paid.
Regardless, Ja Rule and McFarland still seem unfazed by the severity of the investigation, telling the Times, “The whole world knows Fyre’s name now.” Yeah, everyone knows Fyre Festival’s name now, just like everyone knows Ted Bundy’s name. But nobody trusts or likes Ted Bundy.
While Ja Rule and McFarland seem calm and collected despite being under fire (fyre?), there is such a thing as bad publicity. Even if Fyre Media manages to survive multiple lawsuits and the current FBI investigation, it probably won’t be able to swing a successful festival.