Geragos Firm Sues Fyre Fest

The firm of star attorney Mark Geragos has filed a $100 million class action lawsuit against the principals of the disastrous Fyre Fest, the would-be Bahamas getaway for the well-off that turned into a frightening mess.

Jake Strang via AP – ‘Fyre’ Doused
Mattress and tents set up for attendees of the Fyre Festival in the Exuma islands, Bahamas.

Geragos & Geragos filed the suit in the Central district of California on behalf of one of the attendees, Daniel Jung, representing a class of similarly situated persons, against the organizers – tech entrepreneur Billy McFarland, Ja Rule (Jeffrey Atkins) and Fyre Media.

The festival was to be held on two separate weekends on the private island of Fyre Cay, with ticket packages ranging from $4,000 to $100,000 with promises of live music, supermodels and selfie opportunities with swimming pigs. Instead, fans arrived to what resembled a FEMA camp with no food or water.

It was more akin to the “Hunger Games” than Coachella. Which is a line straight from the lawsuit, rife with dark prose.

“Festivalgoers survived on bare rations, little more than bread and a slice of cheese, and tried to escape the elements in the only shelter provided by Defendants: small clusters of ‘FEMA tents,’ exposed on a sand bar, that were soaked and battered by wind and rain,” the lawsuit says.

The convenience of the festival being a cashless event added to the unlivable conditions, according to the lawsuit. “As such, attendees were unable to purchase basic transportation on local taxis or buses, which accept only cash,” the lawsuit claims. “As a result of defendants’ roadblocks to escape, at least one attendee suffered a medical emergency and lost consciousness after being locked inside a nearby building with other concertgoers waiting to be airlifted from the island.”

<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet” data-lang=”en”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>We have been locked indoors with no air NO FOOD and NO water <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/fyrefestival?src=hash”>#fyrefestival</a> <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/fyrefest?src=hash”>#fyrefest</a> fyrefraud <a href=”https://t.co/wg5pZmSvnx”>pic.twitter.com/wg5pZmSvnx</a></p>— Lamaan (@LamaanGallal) <a href=”https://twitter.com/LamaanGallal/status/857915550566981634″>April 28, 2017</a></blockquote>

As for the island, even though it was promoted as being a private island once owned by drug kingpin Pablo Escobar, “The island isn’t private, as there is a ‘Sandals’ resort down the road, and Pablo Escobar never owned the island.”

It should be noted that some attendees attempted to find shelter at the resort but the island’s population is reportedly 7,000 and not prepared for mass tourism, with whatever resort available already booked solid.

“More troublingly, Mr. McFarland and Mr. Atkins began personally reaching out to performers and celebrities in advance of the festival and warned them not to attend – acknowledging the fact that the festival was outrageously underequipped and potentially dangerous for anyone in attendance.”

However, the defendants “refused to warn attendees” and only canceled the event “after thousands of attendees had already arrived and were stranded without food, water or shelter.”

Ja Rule and McFarland have issued apologies to the guests and promised restitution but claimed they did not know how the event got so sideways and claim they are not responsible. Ja Rule’s net worth was recently assessed at $8 million.

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