Ja Rule apologises to unpaid Fyre Festival caterer MaryAnn Rolle after Netflix doc backlash

Ja Rule has issued an apology to one of the victims of the failed Fyre Festival he was a co-founder of.

The rapper posted a screenshot from Netflix’s Fyre Festival documentary of MaryAnn Rolle, a Bahamian caterer who was among the many people to not be paid by organisers of the festival that took place on Great Exuma in the Bahamas, back in 2017.

Rolle claimed in the documentary that she had to clear out her $50,000 savings in order to pay the catering staff who fed and watered the organisers and workers in the lead up to the event.

“My heart goes out to this lovely lady… MaryAnne Rolle,” Ja Rule captioned his Instagram post. “We’ve never met but I’m devastated that something that was meant to be amazing, turn out to be such a disaster and hurt so many ppl

“SORRY to anyone who has been negatively effected by the festival (sic).”

Though one person pointed out that they apparently had met if the documentary is anything to go by.

Rolle set up a GoFundMe page in the hopes of raising some money to cover the costs and explained the situation.

“Back in April 2017 I pushed myself to the limit catering no less than a 1000 meals per day,” she said. “Breakfast, lunch, and dinner were all prepared and delivered by Exuma Point to Coco Plum Beach and Roker’s Point where the main events were scheduled to take place. Organizers would also visit my Exuma Point location to enjoy the prepared meals.

So far she has managed to raise nearly $160,000.

Ja Rule had teamed up with entrepreneur Billy McFarland to put on the festival which was meant to drum up attention for their Fyre app, a platform to allow users to book artists for events with ease.

Instagram models and influencers like Bella Hadid and Hailey Baldwin, had been paid to hang out with Ja Rule and McFarland, along with their team, in order to make it look like the festival would be a luxury event and it worked.

Tickets had sold out but even that wasn’t enough to make the festival happen and they couldn’t afford to deliver its promise of a decadent festival with gourmet food, luxury accommodation or even the headline acts they had booked.

McFarland was sentenced to six years in prison and ordered to forfeit $26 million for wire fraud in a scheme to defraud investors.

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