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Ja Rule 'heartbroken' over Fyre Festival farce

Updated / Saturday, 29 Apr 2017 16:24
Ja Rule - In the spotlight for all the wrong reasons
Ja Rule - In the spotlight for all the wrong reasons

American rapper Ja Rule has said he is "heartbroken" that the luxury music festival he was backing in the Bahamas descended into chaos and became a laughing stock on social media. 

US festival goers had paid anything from $4,000 to $12,000 for tickets to the Fyre Festival, which had been due to feature appearances by the likes of Blink-182 and Skepta.

However, despite being described as "a cultural moment created from a blend of music, art, and food", the event, which was due to begin on Friday on an island once owned by Pablo Escobar, was postponed amidst reports of awful on-site conditions and shambolic (dis)organisation. 

Social media has been captivated by reports of fans being stranded at an unfinished site, while headliners, alert to the bad PR, pulled out at the last minute.

As the Fyrestorm raged, Ja Rule took to Twitter to apologise and vowed to put things right.

The festival has promised fans refunds, donations to charities and free VIP passes to next year's event as it attempts to survive the PR disaster.

"Due to circumstances out of our control, the physical infrastructure was not in place on time and we are unable to fulfil on that vision safely and enjoyably for our guests," the Fyre Festival said in a statement. 

Some of the grim conditions and food that greeted festival goers

"At this time, we are working tirelessly to get flights scheduled and get everyone off of Great Exuma and home safely as quickly as we can. We ask that guests currently on-island do not make their own arrangements to get to the airport as we are coordinating those plans."

"The festival is being postponed until we can further assess if and when we are able to create the high- quality experience we envisioned," the statement added.

After enduring delayed flights from Miami, those attending the festival had reported that their cabanas were instead "actually disaster relief tents", while there were also updates on the grim food and drink, and mountains of rubbish. 

These were the luxury conditions ("modern, eco-friendly, geodesic domes") fans shelled out thousands of dollars for:

Just check out that cheese sandwich!

Just to put everything in context, this is how 'organisers' had marketed the event, which was scheduled to take place over the next two weekends.

Blink-182 had already cancelled their headline appearance at the Fyre Festival before the festival was postponed.

In a statement the band said that: "We're not confident that we would have what we need to give you the quality of performances we always give fans."

After making good their escape from the festival site, fans were reported to have been left stranded at the local airport for over nine hours.

There were even reports of people passing out due to the heat, amid claims that festival goers had been "locked" inside the airport.

Not everyone has expressed sympathy for those who made their way to the festival and there have been plenty of comments about "rich white millennials" getting their comeuppance.

Naturally people on social media have been having a field day:

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