Two men who attended last year's disastrous Fyre Festival have been awarded $5 million in damages after winning a lawsuit against festival organizer Billy McFarland, North Carolina newspaper The News & Observer reports. Blogger Seth Crossno and his friend and co-plaintiff Mark Thompson, both of North Carolina, had bought $13,000 VIP passes for the festival, thinking they were getting a trip to the Bahamas filled with music, celebrities, and luxury. That... did not happen. They sued Fyre Media founder McFarland for fraud, negligent misrepresentation, breach of contract, breach of implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, negligence, unfair and deceptive trade practices and conspiracy to commit fraud against defendants. On Friday, June 30, a judge awarded the pair $1.5 million each “in compensatory damages for flights, hotels and mental anguish, pain and suffering,” according to The News & Observer, and an additional $1 million each in punitive damages.
Thomspon and Crossno—who live-tweeted the Fyre Festival in real time under the Twitter alias William Needham Finley IV—were seeking a minimum of $25,000 in damages through the suit, The News & Observer reports. Ja Rule, a co-organizer of the event, was initially named as a defendant in the lawsuit, but was later removed after the parties reached an outside agreement.
Crossno and Thompson may have some difficulty collecting their money any time soon. In addition to their suit, McFarland is facing multiple other class action lawsuits as well as criminal charges. He pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud back in March. On June 12, before his sentence for those charges could be handed down, the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s office announced that McFarland was facing new money laundering and wire fraud charges as a result of a post-Fyre Festival ticketing scam that he ran from late 2017 to at least March 2018. His sentencing has been postponed to later this month.
Read “Even After the Fyre, Festivals Still Aren’t Learning” on the Pitch.
