Unpaid Bahamian Fyre Festival restaurant owner raises more than £100,000 through GoFundMe page

Netflix and Hulu’s respective Fyre Festival documentaries have been watched by millions across the world.

Most people might know about Fyre Festival because of a tweet of a pretty awful looking cheese sandwich that went viral. But as these documentaries reveal, the mess of Fyre Festival – a festival which was planned for the Bahamas in 2017, was far more disturbing and complex.

The 2017 event promised to be an exclusive party full of Instagram influencers, models, luxury food and music from big stars. But festival goers turned up to find the site was unfinished, with soaking wet tents in a site which was likened to a “refugee camp”.

During the Netflix’s film, Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened, Bahamian restaurant worker Maryann Rolle said that she lost $50,000 of her life savings. Maryann described that her team worked tirelessly to prepare 1,000 meals per day for festival staff. She was never paid after the festival collapsed and therefore had to pay her workers from her savings.

Maryann’s story has struck a chord with viewers. So much so that a crowd-funder set up after the documentary’s release has already raised $129,000.

Writing on the GoFundMe page, Rolle said:

As I make this plea it’s hard to believe and 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.

People on social media were full of love for Rolle and other Bahamian workers who were exploited by Fyre Festival.

H/T: NME