’Nightmare’ Bahamas festival sued for $100 million

Organizers of a music festival in The Bahamas that was billed as a luxury getaway but collapsed in chaos have been hit with a $100 million lawsuit alleging fraud.
The Fyre Festival was aborted Friday after hundreds of partygoers — with some paying more than $100,000 per person — arrived only to find relief-camp style tents and rudimentary sandwiches rather than the promised lavish experience.
“The festival’s lack of adequate food, water, shelter and medical care created a dangerous and panicked situation among attendees... that was closer to ‘The Hunger Games’ or ‘Lord of the Flies’ than Coachella,” reads the lawsuit filed on behalf of Daniel Jung in Los Angeles.
The festival, led by New York rapper Ja Rule and tech entrepreneur Billy McFarland, was billed as “the cultural experience of the decade.” Organizers apologized over the weekend, announcing that all festivalgoers would be refunded.
“Ultimately, we didn’t think security could keep up, so we had to postpone the festival,” a statement read.
The government of The Bahamas, a country of more than 700 islands and cays where tourism is the largest industry, also apologized and assisted in evacuations — but stressed it was not involved directly in the event.
Ja Rule tweeted an apology Friday, saying he was “heartbroken,” while insisting that the debacle was “not my fault.”
Fashion model Bella Hadid, who had helped promote the festival, was in no mood to take any blame either, tweeting Saturday that it was “not my project whatsoever,” and that she had not been told how it would be run.

Source: Arab News