New Fyre Festival Lawsuit Claims Ja Rule Tried Getting More Money after Disastrous Opening

Fyre Festival organizers Billy McFarland and Ja Rule. Photo courtesy of EW.

Summary: The organizers of the Fyre Festival have been sued for a seventh time.

Fyre Festival in April was such an obvious disaster that it comes as no surprise that its organizers have been hit with lawsuits. However, the latest class-action seeking complaint has one surprising new allegation–that the event creators tried to squeeze money out of attendees after the event was canceled.

In the seventh (yes, seventh!) lawsuit filed in the past two weeks, plaintiffs Sean Daly and Edward Ivey said that Fyre Festival’s Ja Rule and Billy McFarland attempted to get more money from ticket buyers even when they knew it was called off.

“When Defendants [McFarland, Ja Rule, and Fyre Media] became aware before the start of the festival that it would not actually happen, they notified the scheduled performers and certain festival employees not to fly out for the event,” the lawsuit obtained by Pitchfork stated. “However, Defendants did not notify Plaintiffs [Daly and Ivey] or the thousands of festival-goers who showed up at the event that it was canceled. Instead, Defendants were actively trying to sell upgraded VIP tickets to existing ticket holders.”

Like in the six other lawsuits, Daly and Ivey sued Ja Rule and McFarland for fraud and breach of contract, but they also alleged unjust enrichment and violation of New York state business law.

Fyre Festival was billed as a luxury event that would be headlined by such acts as Bink-182 and Major Lazer. For tickets that cost $1,000 to $250,000, attendees were told that they would be provided luxury housing on a private Bahamas island, served celebrity chef-catered food, and surrounded by Instagram models like Kendall Jenner. Unfortunately, for the guests who arrived, they were greeted with rabid dogs, FEMA-like tents, and the worst grilled cheese sandwiches of all time.

Festival-goers were also not given basic amenities like clean toilets and running water, and people who tried to leave were stranded because of flight cancellations. For the rich kids stuck in the Bahamas, the experience was described as akin to The Hunger Games and Lord of the Flies.

Celebrity attorney Mark Geragos was the first to file a lawsuit on behalf of client Daniel Jung after Fyre Festival’s disastrous opening day. Geragos’ colleague Ben Meiselas told Pitchfork that 300 ticket holders have already joined his complaint, which is pending class-action status. When asked by the publication what he thought of Fyre Festival and Ja Rule, the attorney bluntly described the reportedly $90-$100 million evaluated company as a scam.

“It kinds of reminds me of a politician, I won’t name who, who says, ‘It’s not about this,’ and then it’s always about that,” Meiselas said to Pitchfork. “The moment they tweeted, ‘This is not a scam’—I think it was Ja Rule who tweeted it—then you go, OK, so why was it you were valuing a company that had no assets at all at $90 million?”