After going down in infamy as the greatest festival debacle in musical history, Fyre Festival continues to be comedic gold for music bloggers everywhere that even the Onion or Wunderground themselves couldn’t have made up.
As music sites and bloggers everywhere continue to repost and create new memes, the legal ramifications of this festival are slowly making their way to the press. As we previously reported Fyre Festival has not only been slapped with a 100 Million lawsuit, but organizers are now facing a second class-action suit.
Filed by personal injury lawyer John Girardi in Los Angeles, the new lawsuit is waging war on the social media “influencer” model used to promote the festival before it fell apart. Stating that Fyre Festival paid more than 400 celebrities and social media influencers, including Kendall Jenner, Bella Hadid, and Emily Ratajkowski, to promote the event, the complaint goes on to accuse the brazen social media campaign of violating Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regulations by not disclosing that the influencers were being paid by the company to promote its event or marking said posts as advertisements. Many of the posts have since been deleted. In their stead a never ending supply of “review” and satire posts like these have been uploaded:
Despite being built on social media, Fyre Festival ironically now has turned on the Social Media “Influencers” they courted to sell their flaming hot mess of festival to the unsuspecting masses. Presumably, in response to the legal backlash, attorneys for the festival have been reportedly sending cease and desist letters to attendees in an attempt to prevent them from bashing the actual experience they were given (which has been compared to the Hunger Games, Lord of the Flies, and my personal favorite Castaway).
From TMZ:
The lawyers said the statements were untrue and what’s worse, could “incite violence, rioting or civil unrest.”
And there was this warning … “If someone innocent does get hurt as a result [of your postings] Fyre Festival will hold you accountable and responsible,” adding, “Inciting violence crosses the line.”
The letter makes a demand … take the posts down — or else.
In spite of the multiple lawsuits and having faced one of the largest online firing squads in internet history, organizers of Fyre Festival remain optimistic they will be returning for a second year!
“Once the refund application process is complete, we will start sharing news on plans for Fyre Festival 2018,” a member of the festival’s management team told Rolling Stone , in an article discussing the ongoing $100 million fraud and breach of contract case currently leveled against the festival organizers. “Currently 81% of guests who have filled out the refund application have said they would like to attend Fyre Festival 2018. We are so thankful for their support and excitement as we strive to make this right.”
Would you attend?
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