In 2017, onlookers feasted their eyes on the chaotic crumble of Fyre Festival. Dubbed as a “luxury music festival,” the event was set to take place on Great Exuma in The Bahamas. Unfortunately for a bevy of patrons and the festival’s organizers, proceedings were extremely far from going according to plan, and left vendors like MaryAnn Rolle with a major hole in their bank accounts.
In a video interview with VICE, the owner of Exuma Point Beach Bar and Grill detailed the Fyre aftermath, but also the controversy around a GoFundMe initiative. After Netflix’s documentary on the event debuted earlier this year, Rolle’s feature inspired viewers to donate to help with compensation that was slow to come from the festival’s handlers. A friend of Rolle’s assisted with setting up the account but attempted to receive a cut of the donations.
“It’s so unfortunate that sometimes a few dollars come in the midst of good friendship. I didn’t have a link to my own GoFundMe account because I just trusted that person to deal with this for me and so I depend on her as a friend and then she tried to screw me right up by signing a contract that she gets almost a half of my money,” Rolle said. “Fyre screwed you, you go to GoFundMe, now you get some money, this person wants to screw you. You don’t want to say in this world ‘Trust nobody,’ because it’s so sad to say that, but God, who do you trust?”
Rolle said after GoFundMe was made aware of her predicament, the company sided with her and gave her some of the funds. She also expressed her gratitude to those donors for their selflessness. “Thank you so much for just lending a helping hand to someone when they needed you most,” she added. “There’s still love in this world. I am amazed. I didn’t know I would ever be a celebrity in my lifetime but here I am.”
Watch the full interview below.
This is what happened to the woman who was scammed out of her $50,000 life savings after catering Fyre Festival.
After making a fortune from donations online, she was almost scammed again. pic.twitter.com/17li7AVsOq
— VICE UK (@VICEUK) May 15, 2019
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