*A restaurant owner in the Bahamas who lost her life savings after she paid out of her own pocket to feed workers and stranded concertgoers at the disastrous Frye Festival, has raised well over $100,000 online after she was featured in Netflix’s new documentary on the event.
Maryann Rolle recalls in the film “Fyre” that, like others on the island of Great Exuma, she was stiffed by festival co-founder Billy McFarland, who’s currently serving six years in jail for fraud.
Rolle wrote on a 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.”
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This is the verified GoFundMe to support Maryann Rolle—the Bahamian restaurant owner who lost over $100k in the #FyreFest documentary featured on @Netflix. https://t.co/9qqFymTPuQ
— GoFundMe (@gofundme) January 19, 2019
By Monday, her page had received over $139,000, exceeding a goal of $123,000.
Maryann tells TMZ she still needs money to pay her employees and her bills … and she wants Fyre Festival co-founder Ja Rule to aid in her financial recovery.
The rapper posted on Instagram: “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 effected by the festival.”
GoFundMe had this to say to Page Six about Rolle’s campaign: “We have an entire team dedicated to ensuring our platform is the safest place to give. We have multiple processes in place to verify the identity of campaign organizers and the beneficiary of the campaign, and we’ll be working with them to make sure the funds get to the right place, safely and smoothly.”
According to the website, “Fyre” director Chris Smith donated $4,000.
As previously reported, Hulu also just released a doc on the fest titled “Fyre Fraud”.
Meanwhile, Ja Rule has slammed both documentaries and says he too was “hustled, scammed, bamboozled, hoodwinked, [and] lead astray” by McFarland and lost “plenty” of money.
“I love how ppl watch a doc and think they have all the answers,” he tweeted.
“I had an amazing vision to create a festival like NO OTHER!!! I would NEVER SCAM or FRAUD anyone what sense does that make???”
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