A verified crowdfunding campaign for one of the most memorable participants in the recently released Netflix documentary about the disastrous Fyre Festival has reached more than $100,000.
Maryann Rolle, a restaurant owner in the Bahamas, said she lost her life savings when she had to pay numerous people after she was stiffed by Fyre co-founder Billy McFarland and his company.
Rolle’s was one of the most heartbreaking tales in the Netflix doc, which dropped last week. Hulu also has a documentary on the catastrophic 2017 music festival that imploded almost as soon as it was announced.
“It has been an unforgettable experience catering to the organizers of Fyre Festival,” Rolle wrote on the GoFundMe page. “Back in April 2017, I pushed myself to the limit catering no less than a 1,000 meals per day. As I make this plea it’s hard to believe and embarrassing to admit that I was not paid…. I was left in a big hole! My life was changed forever, and my credit was ruined by Fyre Fest.”
As of Monday morning, the crowdfunding campaign has raised more than $129,000. The goal was $123,000.
Rapper Ja Rule, who was the co-founder of the festival along with McFarland, went on a Twitterstorm after the docs premiered, trying to protect from attacks against him, some viewers demanding to know what he knew and when he knew it. However, he did share a message of regret Monday morning about Rolle.
“My heart goes out to this lovely lady… MaryAnne Rolle 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 [sic] effected by the festival… Rule,” the rapper said Monday morning via social media.
McFarland, who participated in the Hulu doc, is currently serving a six-year jail sentence for wire fraud.
Elliot Tebele, creator of Jerry Media (or FuckJerry as it was called when the company was doing Fyre’s promotion), is an executive producer of the Netflix documentary. However, Tebele and Jerry Media made large donations to Rolle’s GoFundMe, totaling $30,000.
“Just gave every dollar my agency earned from the Fyre Festival back to the go fund me. Others should do the same,” Tebele said via Twitter.
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