Kendall Jenner, Bella Hadid and Hailey Bieber face subpoenas over the failed Fyre Festival

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2nd Sep 2019

Updated September 2, 2019:  According to E! News, a number of stars including Kendall Jenner and Emily Ratajkowski are “officially being sued to recover money allegedly paid to them for their role in promoting” Fyre Festival.

According to the publication, the event’s trustee, Gregory Messer, filed complaints against the models along with Blink-182, Migos and Pusha T, in New York’s US Bankruptcy Court with the aim of recovering “money paid to talent agencies, performers, vendors and other entities involved in the marketing and failed execution of Fyre Festival.”

Per E! News, the lawsuit claims Jenner was paid US$275,000 for a single social media post and allegedly did not indicate she was paid to promote the festival. A separate lawsuit reportedly alleges Fyre Media paid the modelling agency which represents Emily Ratajkowski, DNA Model Management, US$299,000 and Messer reportedly claims the model “made at least one” social post promoting Fyre, without disclosing that it was a paid post.

According to E! News, lawyers for the defendants have not made any public comments about the lawsuit as yet.

January 29, 2019: The fallout from the failed 2017 Fyre Festival continues with reports that the high-profile models and celebrities who promoted the music festival are set to be issued with subpoenas over their payments from the festival.

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If this is the first you’re hearing about the Fyre Festival, a refresher: a gent called Billy McFarland decided he would stage a luxury music festival on a tropical island, he got a ton of people on board, booked all the most Instagram-influential models — Kendall Jenner, Bella Hadid, Elsa Hosk, Hailey Bieber, Emily Ratajkowski — to promote the festival on social media and via a lavishly shot promotional video, the video went viral, people booked tickets and turned up to Grand Exuma in the Bahamas ready for festival fun, only to find there was no festival — no music acts, no accommodation (just a handful of leftover tents), no proper food, nada. It was all a complete scam.

The festival mastermind, Billy McFarland, is now in jail for wire fraud related to the failed festival but thanks to two documentaries, Netflix’s Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened and Hulu’s Fyre Fraud, there’s renewed public interest in the failed music festival, including the widespread effect McFarland’s festival scam has had on people financially.

So far, the festival has impacted all the people who handed over thousands of dollars to attend the festival (that did not exist); the workers on the Bahamian island who did not get paid for any of the work they did on the failed festival; the Fyre Festival staff in the now defunct Fyre offices in New York.

However, there is one crew who seemed to escape the festival fallout: the models and influencers who promoted the festival and appeared in the festival video. These influencers sold a luxury pipe dream of a fantasy festival life that did not turn into reality and got paid for it. Not their fault, they were just doing the job they were booked for. But, as McFarland’s company, Fyre Media is bankrupt with millions owed, Billboard reports the bankruptcy trustee is trying to figure out where all the Fyre Festival money went, including any payments to talent.

According to Billboard the Fyre Media bankruptcy trustee, Gregory Messer, “has asked a judge for…subpoenas for the models and social media influencers who helped promote the festival.” Messer is looking to subpoena IMG Models, who represent Bella Hadid, Hailey Bieber and Elsa Hosk, over payments the agency received totalling US$1.2 million from McFarland between November 2016 and February 2017. He has also issued a subpoena request for the agency who represents Emily Ratajkowski, DNA Model Management, in relation to a US$299,000 payment McFarland made to the agency in March 2017.

Kendall Jenner, another Fyre Festival promotion crew alumni, is expected to be subpoenaed over payments from the festival including a “US$250,000 payment made to Jenner in January 2017.”

Messer is also seeking to subpoena music acts who received payments for promoting the Fyre Media app, including Soulja Boy and Waka Flocka Flame.

It sounds like the fallout from the Fyre Festival is just getting started.