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Speaker 1: The first Fire Festival was built as an exclusive luxury

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Speaker 1: music festival at a private island in the Bahamas and

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Speaker 1: escape filled with music in a tropical paradise, with tickets

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Speaker 1: costing from twelve hundred dollars up to one hundred thousand,

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Speaker 1: but now a one hundred million dollar lawsuit claims it

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Speaker 1: was closer to The Hunger Games or Lord of the

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Speaker 1: Flies than could shell Up. The festival was canceled after

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Speaker 1: the first day, and the plaintiff say they arrived to

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Speaker 1: a dismal site of half built tents, ham and cheese sandwiches,

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Speaker 1: and not even a sighting of advertised bands like Blink.

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Speaker 1: Bloomberg News reporter Polly mus Sends wrote about the failed

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Speaker 1: festival and joins us Now, so Polly describe how the

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Speaker 1: event was build and what happened. Yeah, the event was

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Speaker 1: really built as a luxury experience, top of the line,

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Speaker 1: best that you can get. And it was also a

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Speaker 1: built a sort of an unplugging Go to the beach

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Speaker 1: for a weekend. Don't use your iPhone, you know, you

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Speaker 1: can really just unplug, unwind, enjoy the music, enjoy the beach,

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Speaker 1: to meet some really interesting people. A lot of the

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Speaker 1: people that were advertising this, were prominent Instagram celebrities, prominent models,

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Speaker 1: you know, Kendall Jenner was involved. Bella hadid a really

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Speaker 1: top of the line model. So that's the kind of

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Speaker 1: image that it portrayed. Was just pure luxury on a

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Speaker 1: remote island destination. And what happened, well, that's what it

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Speaker 1: gets really interesting. So when folks arrived, they sort of

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Speaker 1: fairly quickly realized it was not as it seemed. There

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Speaker 1: was a big line, the tents didn't really seem quite

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Speaker 1: right compared to the pictures. Some folks who had paid

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Speaker 1: extra to have lodges rather than tents found themselves still

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Speaker 1: having to stay in a tent. The food was definitely

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Speaker 1: not what folks thought that they would be getting. You know,

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Speaker 1: there was a lot of styrofoam containers, some cheese sandwiches,

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Speaker 1: There was some chicken, pasta salad and shrimp out there.

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Speaker 1: But when they had really been built a luxury dining

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Speaker 1: experience and a luxury living experience, it was certainly not that.

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Speaker 1: Even their luggage did not arrive in a particularly lux way.

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Speaker 1: It showed up in a big shipping container and then

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Speaker 1: attendees actually climbed onto it to find their bags. Throughout,

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Speaker 1: So Polly, was there any music at all? Well, there

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Speaker 1: was a stage and the implies there could have been music,

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Speaker 1: but in fact, it seems that many of the musicians

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Speaker 1: did not arrive. And this lawsuit that was filed yesterday

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Speaker 1: in California alleges that the musicians and the celebrities, the

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Speaker 1: influencers paid to promote the event were actually told in

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Speaker 1: advance that there was going to be issues and not

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Speaker 1: to come. It's to be determined if that's confirmed, but

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Speaker 1: that's what this case alleges. And what have the organizers

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Speaker 1: of the event said in response. They have apologized profusely

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Speaker 1: and they are promising refunds. But on the case of

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Speaker 1: the refunds, what people are actually getting is called a

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Speaker 1: refund application. They're told to log into this website, they're

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Speaker 1: told to apply for the refund, and in lieu of

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Speaker 1: a refund, they're actually being given the option to get

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Speaker 1: twice as many tickets for next year's event instead of

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Speaker 1: getting their money back. So while they are you know, apologizing,

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Speaker 1: they're taking some responsibility. Uh, they are also you know

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Speaker 1: hedging their bets. They want to try to get people

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Speaker 1: to go next year rather than just get all their

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Speaker 1: money back, and you came out with a news story

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Speaker 1: today about behind the scenes of this. So they're suing

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Speaker 1: for fraud, negligent misrepresentation, and breach of contract. Does it

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Speaker 1: seem as if fraud was involved here after you looked

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Speaker 1: into this, Well, you know, I've gone through it pretty carefully,

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Speaker 1: and I will say that people that were involved in this,

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Speaker 1: they didn't seem that this was forcefully done or maliciously done.

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Speaker 1: It seems that there was just a lot of issues

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Speaker 1: that came up. These are people that have never planned

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Speaker 1: a music festival before, let alone one in a fairly remote,

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Speaker 1: you know location. It's an island. You have to bring

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Speaker 1: a lot of things in. So I think it might

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Speaker 1: be difficult to prove fraud without malicious intent. I don't

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Speaker 1: think these people were trying to, you know, get one

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Speaker 1: over on the attendees. They were trying to have an event.

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Speaker 1: There were things there that would you know, lead you

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Speaker 1: to believe that an event was happening. It just didn't happen. Well,

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Speaker 1: probably there was one one thing you alluded to earlier

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Speaker 1: that were caught my eye and your story when you

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Speaker 1: said that that the organizers are accused of telling them

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Speaker 1: musicians not to come that. That strikes me as being

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Speaker 1: somewhat more serious than than just poor organization. Absolutely, and

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Speaker 1: I do think that that's something to me really debated.

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Speaker 1: That is one of the big points that was made

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Speaker 1: in this lawsuit. They sort of pointed to that and said,

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Speaker 1: you know, there was chaos, there was complete disaster, and

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Speaker 1: they alleged that the organizers did know in advance. So

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Speaker 1: I think a lot of what's going to be debated

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Speaker 1: among the lawyers here is how far ahead did they

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Speaker 1: know and what did they really say, if anything. And

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Speaker 1: the refund process sounds like it's going to be very complicated,

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Speaker 1: and is it something the lawyer who's suing is known

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Speaker 1: for big suits and big cases, is it something that

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Speaker 1: is likely to be accepted? Well, he is certainly known

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Speaker 1: for very big suits, and he has actually said that,

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Speaker 1: you know, he's trying to do a class action here.

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Speaker 1: I am hearing that other lawyers are considering class action

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Speaker 1: suits as well, So perhaps they'll all turn into one

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Speaker 1: gi aunt lawsuit. Lawyers that are not quite as known

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Speaker 1: as this particular turning out of Hollywood who is very

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Speaker 1: well known for his work. So I think it's to

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Speaker 1: be determined how that goes down. Now, as far as

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Speaker 1: the refunds go, it is really very complicated because in

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Speaker 1: addition to ticket refunds, there were these things called fry bands,

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Speaker 1: which basically allowed you to make purchases as you went

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Speaker 1: through the event. If you wanted to get a tour,

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Speaker 1: if you wanted to get a boat, and you know,

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Speaker 1: a food upgrade, you could all buy it on this band.

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Speaker 1: So those bands still have balances on them that have

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Speaker 1: to be refunded, so it's a multi pronged situation. It

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Speaker 1: sounds complicated and nothing like the exclusive Wait Rest Have

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Speaker 1: Fun event that was that was biled. But it's an

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Speaker 1: incredibly interesting story and you can read it on Bloomberg.

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Speaker 1: That's Bloomberg News. Polly must Sin, Thanks Polly, thank you,