The scourge of Fyre Festival lives on.
A north London music festival called Metrofest has gone viral after being dubbed “Britain’s Fyre Festival.” The event’s organizers had promoted the “first ever festival dedicated to R&B and Hip Hop culture” which was to showcase “some of the scene’s most iconic figures.”
However, reports of headliners bailing at the last minute and attendees wading around in mud have effectively besmirched the event, which took place on Sunday, August 8th.
According to Daily Mail, many of the event’s 15,000 attendees, who had paid up to £95 (around $111 USD) for a pass, were left waiting in the rain for hours. Legions of those fans are now requesting refunds after Mya, Eve, Blackstreet and Tony Touch pulled out of their performances. One disgruntled ticket-holder even floated the idea of a class action lawsuit.
In the aftermath of the “disastrous” festival, its organizers have clapped back at accusations claiming there were problems with COVID-19 testing for performing artists. Famed R&B group Blackstreet, perhaps best known for 1996’s “No Diggity,” purportedly said that Metrofest’s promoters were “terribly disorganized” and had “refused to give us our COVID test results to go back to the States,” Complete Music Update reported.
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Metrofest organizers went on to deny those claims in a statement shared overnight.
“Unfortunately, due to circumstances beyond our control, Blackstreet and Mya, who were scheduled to appear on the main stage, refused to perform at Metrofest for their loyal fans who bought tickets for the event,” the statement reads. “It is also very disappointing that Blackstreet have since released an eighteen minute video on their social media accounts, containing false accusations in an attempt to shift the blame onto the Metrofest team.”
“Blackstreet and Mya were fully paid for their set at the festival but refused to leave their hotel, citing that their [COVID] test results were unavailable,” the organizers’ official statement continues. “We can categorically confirm that the documentation was sent to both artists. This is part of the same documentation provided by us for them to gain entry into the UK. We have fulfilled all of our contractual obligations and completely refute the false allegations in the video. We are appalled by this unprofessional behaviour which in turn resulted in a string of hold-ups.”
Since we’re living in the social media hellscape that is 2021, memes created to poke fun at the ill-fated festival have already begun to pervade Twitter.
Apparently the festival wasn’t all bad despite “unseasonal weather” and “unforeseen artist travel logistics,” as organizers put it. Many fans got their nostalgia fix thanks to performances by a number of decorated hip-hop and R&B artists, such as Fat Joe and Bobby Valentino.
