Fyre Festival organisers blew millions of dollars on celebrity guests, private planes and yachts to promote their "luxe" event - and yet failed to pay their caterers or even order toilets until last month, sources say.
According to Daily Mail, Kendall Jenner was paid US$250,000 ($363,100) for one Instagram picture alone, and the event paid hundreds of thousands for other top names such as Bella Hadid, Elsa Hosk, Emily Ratajkowski and Rose Bertram.
Even the smaller Instagram stars and social media influencers were not paid less than $20,000 each.
Ja Rule is the man behind Fyre Festival. Photo / Getty
Jenner's Instagram photo promoting the festival has since been deleted.
Organised by rapper Ja Rule, whose real name is Jeffrey Atkins, and business partner Billy McFarland, the Fyre Festival was meant to grow global brand awareness for Fyre Media, a talent booking startup the pair founded in 2015.
However, the music festival in the Bahamas, billed as a luxury experience quickly devolved into an island landscape of half-built tents, cheese sandwiches, and a distinct lack of musical talent.
Meanwhile, many of the festivals' suppliers claim they are still waiting to be paid for their services.
One supplier told Vice that 25-year-old organiser Billy McFarland had failed to grasp even the basics of putting together such a large-scale event.
"There was no infrastructure to even support the equipment," said a toilet supplier who was only contacted by the festival last month - weeks before the event was due to start.
They warned that it didn't matter how much money they threw at the problem, the toilets and trailers simply would not get through Customs in time.
Super models Gigi Hadid and Kendall Jenner. Photo / Getty
"They didn't even have a loading dock, they had no understanding of what vehicles were on the island to even move the stuff off the ship once it got there," said the supplier. "They said stuff like, 'Don't worry about Customs; it's only for a weekend, you don't have to worry about Customs'."
Another toilet supplier, who did not get the contract, quoted Fyre $1 million just for the basic equipment - not including the shipping and emptying charge - because they had left it so last minute.
But Customs were a problem and officials on the Bahamas island have placed the site on "lockdown" because "Billy has not paid Customs duty taxes on the items that he imported", the Bahamian Ministry of Tourism said in a statement obtained by ABC.
