“I’m heartbroken at this moment,” Ja Rule, whose real name is Jeffrey Atkins, said on Twitter. “I wanted this to be an amazing event. It was not a scam as everyone is reporting.”
The organizers said they were working to arrange charter flights to Miami for people who had already arrived in Exuma and said inbound flights had been canceled. “I don’t know how everything went so left but I’m working to make it right,” the rapper said.
The Fyre Festival had promised “culinary delights and luxury” over this weekend and the second one in May. Organizers had relied on models and other minor celebrities to heavily promote the festival as a glitzy destination event. It was unclear from the website if the second weekend would also be canceled.
The Bahamas tourism ministry had expected it to be one of the largest such events ever held in the island chain east of Florida. But attendees complained bitterly in social media posts about disorganization, a lack of accommodations and inadequate food.