She used $50,000 of her personal savings to pay her team which saw her “credit ruined by Fyre Fest.”
The dumpster fire that’s collectively know as Fyre continues to blaze.
With the release of two documentaries this week – Netflix’s Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened and Hulu’s Fyre Fraud – the level of fraud, lies, and incompetence from Ja Rule and Billy McFarland, the festival’s co-organisers, has been re-exposed to the world.
As previously stated, the Fyre Festival was an absolute clusterf**k as rich kids were duped by con artists, influencers, and an enticing promotional video that featured supermodels.
What was billed as an exclusive event with private yachts, luxury villas, VIP treatments, incredible music, and celebrities turned into the exact opposite.
Simply put, you probably wouldn’t want your biggest enemy to attend Fyre Festival and to compound matters, all these festivalgoers had to pay extraordinary money for their tickets.
Both documentaries illustrate that McFarland was remorseless when it comes to lying, cheating, and hustling – some of his own employees had no idea of his plans – but in the immediate aftermath of the documentary airing on Netflix, plenty of people have felt extreme sympathy for the Bahamian workforce and one woman in particular, the Exuma Point restaurant owner, Maryann Rolle.
As stated in the documentary, Mrs Rolle worked around the clock to provide food to the attendees of Fyre. Ultimately, she had to use $50,000 of her personal savings to pay her team.
Speaking in the documentary, Rolle said: ‘I had ten people working with me directly. They were just preparing food all day and all night, 24 hours. I had to pay all those people. I went through about $50,000 of my savings that I could have had. They just wiped it out, and never looked back,” she said.
Since then, a GoFundMe page has been created to help Rolle pay her debts.
Ok, we know what you’re thinking. Given the subject matter of the Fyre documentary, is this legitimate?
Well, Gabrielle Bluestone, a producer on Netflix’s documentary, has shared the link for Mrs Rolle’s GoFundMe page.
As for the fundraising page itself, it states that: “It has been an unforgettable experience catering to the organisers of Fyre Festival. Back in April 2017. I pushed myself to the limits. I was catering no less than a 1000 meals per day. Breakfast, lunch and dinner were all prepared and delivered by Exuma Point to Coco Plum Beach, and Roker’s Point where the main events were scheduled to take place. Organisers would also visit my Exuma Point location to enjoy the prepared meals.”
It adds: “Fyre Fest organisers were also checked into all the rooms at Exuma Point. As I make this plea, it’s hard to believe and it’s embarrassing to admit that I was not paid. I was left in a big hole! My life was changed forever, and my credit was ruined by Fyre Fest. My only resource today is to appeal for help. There is an old saying that goes “bad publicity is better than no publicity” and I pray that whoever reads this plea is able to assist.”
At present, $34,227 has been raised.
For those of you asking how to help Maryann Rolle, the Bahamian woman who spent $50,000 of her savings to feed the local laborers who worked on the Fyre Festival, she has an official gofundme page here: https://t.co/eLawHgE92E
— Gabrielle Bluestone (@g_bluestone) January 18, 2019
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