The Fyre Festival was a music festival in 2017 that went terribly wrong and made headlines around the world. The event was an unorganised disaster, and behind the mayhem was a host of fraudulent exchanges and activity from company leaders.
CEO of Fyre Media William McFarland is currently serving a six-year jail term for several counts of fraud, while others involved in the scandal are still being investigated.
Among those in the spotlight is a selection of high-profile models and influencers who were enlisted to promote the festival. Kendall Jenner and model management companies IMG Models and DNA Model Management, representing the likes of Bella Hadid and Emily Ratajkowski are being questioned for their part in the extravaganza.
An elite group of models were paid to appear in a promotional clip as well as to promote the music festival on their personal social media accounts. Transfers were made with more than $1.2 million going to IMG models and $275,000 to Jenner, while the Fyre Festival debacle was said to cost investors and customers a total of approximately $26 million.
The models and agencies have been served subpoenas as the courts continue to attempt to unravel the events of 2017. Many are calling for the influencers to be held responsible for their role in misleading attendees, resulting in thousands of dollars being lost by each visitor. Whereas others believe it is not the influencers job to oversee the events they promote. Their job is marketing and promotion, which they fulfilled, and any failure to meet other responsibilities within the event are not their responsibility, and thus they should not be held responsible for its failure.
Opinions are split, but all eyes are on the court case which is attempting to bring to justice those who were responsible for the ill-fated event.
