Ja Rule Says He’s ‘Heartbroken’ About Massive Fyre Festival Fail: ‘This Is Not My Fault!’
A regretful Ja Rule has apologized to those who shelled out big bucks to attend his inaugural Fyre Festival in the Bahamas, Rolling Stone is reporting.
Following a barrage of online grievances from those who paid upwards of half-a-million dollars to attend the “luxury-style,” two-weekend celebrity-laden bash in the Exuma Cays and instead experienced something akin to The Hunger Games (lack of food, water, proper shelter, etc.), as the Inquisitr noted previously, Rule — born Jeffrey Atkins — touched on the disastrous affair early Friday afternoon on Twitter and expressed that he was desperately trying to rectify matters as quickly as possible.
“We are working right now on getting everyone off the island safely,” the rapper shared, “[and] that is my immediate concern.”
Incidentally, as the Independent provides, many of those who tried to get off the island on their own were, for a time, physically unable to, due to being others being literally locked inside of airports or airplanes on the island by transportation workers out of “safety” concerns.
They've now locked us in the airport. No rules, just right. Welcome to the Bahamas! (Tell my family I love them) #fyrefestival pic.twitter.com/KkgkroZzhc
— William Needham Finley IV (@WNFIV) April 28, 2017
Likewise, others who were able to make it to Miami to board transferring flights to the Exumas were either also grounded on the tarmac in the Florida city or inside of waiting areas at their chosen airports after the event was officially cancelled (they were, however, allowed to head back to their places of origin at no further costs to them).
“Welcome to Exuma! Sunrise at Fyre [Festival],” one seemingly unfortunate soul stated on Twitter.
“Still on the same plane we’ve been on since 1:30 am. My stomach is eating itself.”
In a separate joint statement given by Ja and fellow Fyre Festival organizer Billy McFarland sometime late Thursday, the duo explained that the pricey party had ultimately been postponed.
“Fyre Festival set out to provide a once-in-a-lifetime musical experience on the islands of Exuma,” the organizers wrote.
“Due to circumstances beyond our control, we must postpone this experience. We are working tirelessly to ensure each guest leaves the island safely and ask for everyone’s patience and cooperation as we continue to provide ongoing updates via email and our official social media channels as they become available, including refund information.”
Writers for the Wall Street Journal allege that since January, signs of evident trouble for the Fyre Festival; mostly money-related issues, were pretty prominent, but seemingly ignored by most of the attendees.
“[We] reported earlier this month that some [of the] artists had not yet been paid in accordance with their contracts, while [about] 7,000 guests complained of a concierge service that was slow to [confirm plans].”
As revelers began to arrive on the Exuma Cays on Thursday night, it quickly became apparently that the paradise promised in the previews promoted by Ja and other notables, including models Kendall Jenner and Gigi Hadid, for the Fyre Festival, was more hellish than anyone could’ve ever expected.
“Festival-goers found a garbage-filled, unfinished festival site,” a separate Rolling Stone article expresses, “that barely resembled the experience they hoped the thousands of dollars spent would provide.”
“Villas were nothing more than “disaster relief tents’ with a mattress on some sort of bed frame, [and] the ‘celebrity chef-prepared meals’ on the island [actually] consisted of a cheese sandwich and small salad served in a Styrofoam container.”
Despite what ultimately occurred, Ja went on to insist in his Twitter posting that the Fyre Festival was not a scam.
“I’m heartbroken at this moment,” he wrote.
“My partners and I wanted this to be an amazing event. I don’t know how everything went so left, but I’m working to make it right by making sure everyone is refunded. I truly apologize — this is not my fault, but I’m taking responsibility. I’m deeply sorry to everyone who was inconvenienced by this.”
Just as with many of his celebrity endorsers, Ja Rule has since deleted a majority of mentions of the Fyre Festival from his social media accounts.
[Featured Image by John Parra/Getty Images]
