How Kendall Jenner Was Involved in Fyre Festival
By Jennifer Fabiano
Documentaries surrounding the nightmare that was the Fyre Festival have just started streaming on Netflix and Hulu, which has us remembering that a 21-year-old Kendall Jenner had a part in the debacle.
Netflix got it right when they titled their documentary The Greatest Party That Never Happened. The April 2017 music festival was supposed to be a giant party in the Bahamas, but ended up being a nightmare for those who were actually involved.
Come to Fyre Fest, they said.
— hulu (@hulu) January 14, 2019
It’ll be lit, they said. #FyreFraud is now streaming only on Hulu. pic.twitter.com/FYiexsbLYE
The event was spearheaded by Billy McFarland and Ja Rule, but was doomed from the beginning, according to Refinery29. With not enough time or money to successfully pull off Fyre Festival, McFarland, who is currently serving a six-year prison sentence, turned to promoting the event to an extreme, which is why Kendall’s name is tied to it.
On Jan. 5, 2017, Jenner posted to Instagram promoting the festival. In a now-deleted post, Kendall announced that some members of the G.O.O.D. Music would be performing, and also provided a discount code for followers to buy tickets to the festival.
Opps! Kendall better delete this.... #fyrefestival pic.twitter.com/m9G2Xu1LNS
— tapas & cocaine (@BaddieLambily) April 28, 2017
Though Kendall’s post never said it outright, many fans believed from the post that her brother-in-law Kanye West would be performing at the festival with his G.O.O.D. Music label.
Jenner was paid $250,000 for the post, but failed to mention she was promoting it for money. The Federal Trade Commission requires posters to disclose when something is an ad on social media, which is why most influencers label their pictures with "#ad." However, Jenner failed to include it on that post.
Models such as Bella Hadid, Emily Ratajkowski, and Hailey Baldwin also posted promotional Instagrams, but only Emily used "#ad" in her post.
When the event turned out to be a disaster, multiple lawsuits were filed against McFarland as well as against social media influencers who promoted the event, including Kendall.
To public knowledge, Jenner never received any punishment for failing to disclose she was posting an ad, profiting from it, and misleading followers. The lawsuit, in which she is indirectly named as an “influencer” has not been settled. While Bella Hadid apologized to followers in a now-deleted post, Kendall never publicly announced she had anything to do with the failed Fyre Festival.