Once again, we turn to the world of music for news of curious litigation. For those unfamiliar with the Fyre Festival, the following is a synopsis:
The music event (from April 28–30 and May 5–7) is touting itself as “the cultural experience of the decade.” Though these islands are part of the Bahamas, this scattered string of pearls is way more barefoot and bronzed than cruise ships and coconut cocktails.
The Fyre Festival website explains its origins as follows:
Billy McFarland and Ja Rule started a partnership over a mutual interest in technology, the ocean, and rap music. This unique combination of interests led them to the idea that, through their combined passions, they could create a new type of music festival and experience on a remote island.
Reportedly, festival tickets cost $450 for a day pass and up to a $250,000.00 for a full VIP experience. Unfortunately, its organizers canceled the festival at the last minute, and hundreds of attendees allege that they were stranded on the remote island with sparse food and dangerously rustic accommodations. That sounds a bit more perilous than Woodstock, no?
Litigation, of course, ensued.
Famed Plaintiffs’ attorney Mark J. Geragos filed a class action lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. The named Plaintiff, Daniel Jung, alleges as follows:
Additionally the criminal justice lawyer in New Jersey says that the suit alleges that the problems were known before the information was disclosed to prospective attendees, but that the information was not disclosed in a timely manner:
It is anticipated that there will be at least 150 members of the class. The lawsuit seeks at least $100 million in damages. Presumably, the lawsuit will be hotly contested, but Fyre Festival organizers are promising that “[a]ll festival goers this year will be refunded in full” and that they “will be working on refunds over the next few days and will be in touch directly with guests with more details.” Aggrieved guests may be pleased to find out that “all guests from this year will have free VIP passes to next year’s festival.” Who knows how that turned out?
On May 7, lawyer R. Davis Younts claims the Plaintiff amended the Complaint, and no defendant has answered. In fact, it appears that there may be some issues with serving them.
The case is Daniel Jung v. Billy McFarland, et al, 2:17-cv-03245-ODW-JC, U.S. District Court for the Central District of California (Western Division – Los Angeles).
We at Abnormal Use are skeptical that a jury would be excited about awarding money to a 20-30 year old who has $250,000.00 lying around for VIP tickets to an island music festival, but maybe we are wrong. This could be the case of the century arising out of what could have been the music festival of the century.
