A group of 277 Fyre Festival attendees will receive settlement payouts of $7,220 each after the conclusion of a lawsuit against the organizers.
Attendees had spent between $1,000 and $12,000 on tickets to the festival, which was canceled on its opening day. After the venue was incomplete, the festival went viral, and all of the performers pulled out, leaving them stranded on an island formerly belonging to Pablo Escobar.
Organizer Billy McFarland was sentenced to six years in prison in 2018 after pleading guilty to wire fraud charges. He was also ordered to pay $5 million to two people who paid $13,000 each for VIP packages.
‘FYRE FESTIVAL’ TRAILER
“I cannot emphasize enough how sorry I am that we fell short of our goal,” McFarland said in a 2017 statement, though he declined to address specific allegations. “I’m committed to, and working actively to, find a way to make this right, not just for investors but for those who planned to attend.”
Ja Rule was one of the founders of the festival but somehow managed to escape responsibility for the epic fraud.