Attendees of last year’s Fyre Festival are reportedly being targeted by a promotions company offering further high price tickets that some believe to be scams.
The Ja Rule organised festival became notorious last year after luxury tickets costing thousands translated into appalling food, accommodation and organisation on-site.
The dinner that @fyrefestival promised us was catered by Steven Starr is literally bread, cheese, and salad with dressing. #fyrefestival pic.twitter.com/I8d0UlSNbd
— Trevor DeHaas (@trev4president) April 28, 2017
According to individuals on the Fyre Festival mailing list, 20-year-old rep Frank Tribble from a company called NYC VIP Access has been contacting them with too-good-to-be-true offers since December.
Ticket offers include the invite-only Met Gala, where guests typically pay $30,000 for a place and are all personally approved by Vogue editor Anna Wintour.
According to VICE news, the email inviting recipients to the Met Gala read: “We partnered with the sponsoring brands to get you a chance to buy tickets. Tickets include red carpet, seats for the event/dinner, and an invitation to the after-party.”
Tribble added: “Tickets are extremely limited. Please respond with your brief bio and number of guests you’d like to have attend, and we’ll follow up with a call.“
The promoter has also emailed offering VIP tickets for a personal dinner with LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers for $2999, and tickets for the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show at $1500 a piece.
Tribble claims the VS passes have come from the models’ three ticket allotment, but auditions for the November show typically do not even begin until August.
Seth Crossno, who attended Fyre Festival and has subsequently found himself on the NYC VIP Access mailing list, called the emails “hilarious”.
He added that he knew of at least four people who had also attended Fyre and then started receiving emails from Tribble.
Tribble said that he did not know why the emails had targeted Fyre Festival attendees, as none of the organisers were behind the ill-fated event.
“I’m just an agent for the company,” he said.
“I do know that we’re partnered up with ticket organisations for higher-end clients, VIP access. So whoever I reached out to, whoever referred you, they were on a list of people that I was reaching out to, on a list that I received from the company.”
He maintains the tickets are real and not a scam, and says a “major press release” about the company will be coming soon.
“That’s going to be in about a month to two months. I’d say half the world’s going to know about it. So I mean, it’s something that without me even sending you something, you will know about it.”
Tribble also explained that tickets booked through the company were not issued at purchase, but collected at the box office: “We give you confirmation stuff before any money is sent. There will be a contract in place, and the reason why you have that contract is because you don’t get the tickets upon purchase, you pick them up at will-call,” he explained.
“You know, first-time clients feel a little bit more comfortable paying with their American Express credit card, but that’s why you do have the contract in place.”
A website for NYC VIP Access offers little information about the company, but asks applicants to supply “detailed professional biographies on you and your guests” before contacting them about tickets.