How to Help a Restaurant Owner Affected by the Fyre Festival
The Fyre Festival, an infamous music festival that never actually took place, has affected several local communities in the Bahamas, including restaurant owner Marianne Rolle.
In a Netflix documentary on the Fyre Festival (one of two recent fiasco variants; the other is a longer episode about Hulu), Rolle explained how she and her staff at Exuma Point Resort served and accommodated some of the festival staff around the clock. at the hotel too; They remained unpaid after its cancellation.
Rolle said she spent $ 50,000 of her personal savings on some expenses, including employee salaries. Since the film’s release in theaters social networking wave of support, and now Rolle has organized a campaign GoFundMe, to offset some of their costs.
“When I say this request, I find it hard to believe and embarrassed to admit that I was not paid,” Rollet wrote on the campaign page. “I stayed in the big pit! My life was changed forever and my reputation was ruined by Fyre Fest. My only resource today is to ask for help. There is an old adage that “bad publicity is better than no publicity,” and I pray that anyone who reads this request can help. ”
The campaign has already raised over $ 160,000 in just a week, surpassing its original target of $ 123,000 (although given several weeks of preparation for the festival, this could only be a drop in its total spending). The campaign still accepts donations if you would like to help Roll.
“It has been an incredible outpouring of support for the workers affected by the Fyre Festival,” a GoFundMe spokesman told Buzzfeed News . “As always, we will work with the organizers and beneficiaries to ensure that the money gets to the right place.”
Chris Smith, the director of the documentary, also confirmed to Buzzfeed News that he is currently actively campaigning to support the Bahamian workers, who are seen throughout the film, who are owed at least $ 250,000 in unpaid wages.
Since the film’s release, Ja Rule, one of the co-founders of Fyre Festival, has posted a public apology on Instagram to Rolle, who does not have a well-known Instagram account. “I really love this beautiful lady,” he wrote in his signature. “MaryAnn Rolle, whom we never met, but I’m devastated that what should have been amazing turned out to be such a disaster and hurt so many people … I’m sorry to everyone who was negatively impacted by the festival [sic] …”