It’s been three years since the now-infamous Fyre Festival burst into our collective consciousness, with its jaw-dropping depictions of stranded influencers and sad-looking cheese sandwiches.
Now, Kendall Jenner has agreed to pay a $90,000 (approximately £73,760) settlement over the Instagram post she shared in 2017 promoting the fraudulent Bahamas festival, which saw scammer/entrepreneur Billy McFarland and Ja Rule mislead hundreds of ticket holders into thinking they’d be attending a luxury event with A-list performers and boutique accommodation. We all know what happened next.
In January 2017, Jenner shared a post on Instagram promoting G.O.O.D Music Family, the record label founded by Kanye West, as the “first headliners” for Fyre Festival, which was due to take place later that year.
“Use my promo code KJONFYRE for the next 24 hours to get on the list for the artists and talents afterparty on Fyre Cay,” the now-deleted post read.
Court documents filed on August 28, 2019, said that Jenner was paid $250,000 to share the Instagram post, receiving an additional $25,000 a few days later. 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 the lawsuit alleges “intentionally led certain members of the public and ticket purchasers to believe” Kanye would perform at Fyre.
Fyre Festival has since become a renowned example of scammer culture, with two documentaries about the doomed event dropping last 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.
