How Not to Stage a Music Festival: Lessons from Fyre Festival

By Gary A. Laurie, Esq posted 05-10-2017 09:52 AM

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At this point, I’m sure you’ve all heard of the debacle that was supposed to be the Fyre Festival. This is the story of how two inexperienced promoters convinced themselves and many attendees that they could build a festival from the ground up on an undeveloped island that would deliver a high-end experience featuring VIP packages.

The festival was promoted by social media influencers and supermodels, and promised attendees three days on a private island in the Bahamas with luxury accommodations, gourmet food, access to private beaches, luxury yachts and Fyre’s artist compound. However, it was plagued by almost every issue imaginable: no stage setup, no food or water, understaffing, and accommodations that didn’t live up to what was promised to attendees. In the end, many of the attendees either couldn’t get to the island, or if they did, they found themselves stuck there with none of the promised amenities.

There are allegations that the organizers (Fyre Media, Billy McFarland and JaRule) knew at least a month before the event that they wouldn't be able to stage the event as promised, yet made no attempt to mitigate the damages. Serious logistical planning for the festival didn’t even begin until late February or early March — less than two months before the festival was supposed to occur. Every production team that was brought on insisted that the festival couldn’t be safely staged in time and should be postponed. The organizers ignored all of these warnings and fired each of the production teams in turn until finally taking over the production details themselves.

Other allegations include that the organizers were running low on cash and lacked such necessities as toilets and showers. According to VICE News, one supplier said that when they were contacted by the festival in April, they told the organizers that “all the money in the world wouldn’t get trailers for toilets and showers past customs in time, because that takes weeks to process”. The supplier also noted there was no infrastructure, loading dock, and organizers didn’t even know what vehicles were on the island to move the supplies once they got there. Allegedly, organizers dismissed these worries by saying “Don’t worry about customs; it’s only for a weekend, you don’t have to worry about customs.” The Bahamian Ministry of Tourism eventually shut the site down because the organizers never paid customs duty taxes on the items they imported.

At least two class action lawsuits have already been filed against the organizers. Mark Geragos has already filed a $100 million class-action lawsuit against the organizers alleging fraud, breach of contract, breach of covenant of good faith, and negligent misrepresentation. John Girardi has also filed a suit for a breach of contract, negligent misrepresentation and fraud suit alleging they tricked attendees by paying more than 400 social media influencers and celebrities to promote the event.

Critically, the majority of social media influencers didn’t label their social media posts as sponsored even though they were paid significant sums to post about Fyre Festival, in direct contravention of Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regulations requiring that influencers disclose to consumers in their posts that they received compensation for promoting the festival. This could lead to claims against the social media influencers themselves for flouting the FTC regulations.

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How Not to Stage a Music Festival: Lessons from Fyre Festival

By Gary A. Laurie, Esq posted 05-10-2017 09:52 AM

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