Blink-182, Lil Yachty, and Pusha T have also been hit with lawsuits over their involvement in the disastrous 2017 festival
The influencers and artists involved in 2017’s Fyre Festival are officially being sued. Kendall Jenner, Emily Ratajkowski, and more have been hit with lawsuits in an attempt to recover the money they were paid for their promotion of the disastrous event.
Organised by scammer entrepreneur Billy McFarland and Ja Rule, Fyre was billed as a luxurious music experience in the Bahamas, but instead descended into Lord of the Flies (see: that infamous cheese sandwich). Now, the event’s trustee Gregory Messer is determined to retrieve the money unlawfully paid to talent agencies, performers, and vendors.
Messer’s lawsuit claims Jenner was paid $275k (£227k) for one social media post about the festival. The model reportedly didn’t mark the post as a paid partnership, and also referenced her ‘G.O.O.D. Music Family’ in the caption, which Messer alleges “intentionally led certain members of the public and ticket purchasers to believe” Kanye West – who founded the G.O.O.D music label – would perform at Fyre.
The lawsuit filed against Ratajkowski’s model agency, DNA Model Management, alleges that the model didn’t declare her post about Fyre as paid for either, despite receiving $299k (£247k) for it.
Messer is also suing three agencies responsible for booked artists. Creative Artists Agency was reportedly paid $500k (£413k) for Blink-182, International Creative Management – which represents Lil Yachty, Rae Sremmurd, and Migos – got $350k (£289k), while Nue Agency received $730k (£603k) for Pusha T, Desiigner, and Tyga.
Addressing her involvement in the festival in March, Jenner said: “I definitely do as much research as I can, but sometimes there isn’t much research you can do because it’s a starting brand and you kind of have to have faith in it and hope it will work out the way people say it will.”
Fyre Festival has since become infamous and the bassline for scammer memes, with two documentaries about the doomed event dropping this year, and merch from the festival going on sale. Despite currently serving a six year prison sentence for his scam, organiser McFarland has his sights set on a second Fyre Fest – after these lawsuits, he can probs count Jenner and Ratajkowski out though.