Scott Disick and Sofia Richie Facing Backlash for Attending Saudi Arabian Festival MDL Beast

Scott Disick and Sofia Richie are facing backlash for promoting their attendance at the music festival MDL Beast in Saudi Arabia. The festival took place from Dec. 19-21 in Riyadh and boasted a lineup including David Guetta, Steve Aoki, Tiesto, and many others.

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Can’t wait for tonight @mdlbeast

A post shared by Sofia Richie (@sofiarichie) on Dec 20, 2019 at 5:21am PST

According to the MDL Beast website, the festival was meant to bring together the, "best in electronic music, performing arts and culinary craft - just outside of Riyadh."

In order to improve the image of Saudi Arabia and make it a more hospitable country to travelers, the festival sponsored many celebrities to attend and in exchange, the A-listers posted pictures of themselves at the concert and in other areas of Saudi Arabia. According to the Instagram account Diet Prada, the celebrities were offered "six-figure sums" to promote the festival.

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What’s worse than an all white @revolve influencer trip? Cashing big fat checks in exchange for #content creation (aka propaganda) to rehabilitate the image of Saudi Arabia, a country said to be causing “the world’s worst humanitarian crisis”, according to the United Nations. According to anonymous sources, six-figure sums were offered for attendance and geo-tagged posts. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Following the government’s pre-meditated murder of journalist Jamal Kashoggi in October 2018 , the arrest of women’s rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul in May 2018, the outing of a gay Saudi journalist and his partner who began receiving death threats from their families (homosexuality is a crime in Saudi Arabia and punishable by death), and countless other human rights abuses, a bevy of supermodels, influencers, celebrities, and musicians convened in Riyadh for the inaugural @mdlbeast . According to @hypebeast , the electronic music festival is “one of the most significant musical events the region has ever seen”. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Saudi Arabia has been spending billions to change its image in the west, but this is sure to be the most expensive campaign yet. In a series of Instagram stories posted by transgender model @teddy_quinlivan , it was revealed that fellow model @emrata had turned down the trip, evidently aware of the country’s human rights crisis. “It is very important to me to make clear my support for the rights of women, the LGBTQ community, freedom of expression and the right to a free press. I hope coming forward on this brings more attention to the injustices happening there”, said Ratajkowski in a statement to Diet Prada. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Unfortunately, not all shared the same sentiments. There are simply too many attendees to name. Dieters, feel free to tag any attendees you know of... just in case they haven’t been reading the news. • #propoganda #jamalkashoggi #humanrights #humanrightsabuse #lgbtq #lgbtqrights #freespeech #journalism #independent #womensrights #mdlbeast #edm #electronicmusic #supermodel #influencer #content #riyadh #emrata #emilyratajkowski #teddyquinlivan #model #celebrity #dj #electronicmusic #musicfestival #wtf #smh #government #corruption #dietprada

A post shared by Diet Prada ™ (@diet_prada) on Dec 21, 2019 at 2:04pm PST

The reason these festival attendees are facing backlash is because of many alarming events that recently took place in Saudi Arabia. Primarily, the journalist Jamal Kashoggi was murdered in Oct. 2018 without a just or suitable response yet. Women’s rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul was arrested in May 2018, not to mention that homosexuality is a crime in the country, punishable by death.

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? on #MDLBeast

A post shared by Diet Prada ™ (@diet_prada) on Dec 22, 2019 at 3:44pm PST

According to E! News, many women who attended MDL Beast were sexually harassed and groped at the events. With the egregious history of Saudi Arabia's treatment of women, members of the LGBTQ+ movement and journalists, it's no wonder that people were horrified to see the number of celebrities jetting across the world to participate in their end of a sponsored deal.

Scott and Sofia weren't the only celebrities to attend. Others included Irina Shayk, Jourdan Dunn, Ryan Phillippe, Alessandra Ambrosio, and many others who are also facing backlash for promoting travel to a country with a history so darkly colored by discrimination and murder.