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Settlement reached in Fyre Festival ticketholder class action
By Chris Cooke | Published on Friday 16 April 2021
A settlement has been reached in one of the big Fyre Festival lawsuits, with 277 people who had tickets for the disastrous event set to receive damages. A filing made with the US bankruptcy courts in New York earlier this week confirmed the settlement, which was reached with the trustee overseeing the assets of the former Fyre company.
There was a flurry of lawsuits after the Fyre Festival collapsed just as it was getting started back in April 2017. As ticketholders began to arrive on the island in the Bahamas were the event was due to take place, it became clear organisers hadn’t put in place the infrastructure for even a basic festival, let alone the luxury experience that had been promised.
The Fyre companies quickly went under, while the man behind the whole debacle, Billy McFarland, was charged and later convicted with and jailed for fraud. With the companies bankrupt and McFarland in prison, it wasn’t clear where the money would come from to pay damages to the investors, suppliers and ticketholders who had gone legal.
Although, that said, the trustee overseeing the bankruptcy process has successfully negotiated back some of the upfront fees that were paid to artists who were due to play the festival, and the social media influencers who helped promote it.
The settlement reached in the class action led by the law firm Geragos & Geragos is worth $2 million, which would equate to around $7,220 per class member, although it’s still to be confirmed quite how much each person will actually receive. But, nevertheless, as a result of the settlement some of the monies secured through the bankruptcy process will be set aside for ticketholders.
Welcoming the settlement deal, Ben Meiselas, a partner at Geragos & Geragos, told Billboard: “It’s a small but significant step for ticketholders who were defrauded and had their lives up-ended as a result of the fraudulent conduct by McFarland”.
