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'Festival scam': Two Perth women stranded on remote Bahamas island

Published: April 28 2017 - 6:12PM

Two Perth women have been left stranded on a remote island near the Bahamas after a music festival the pair were due to attend was cancelled at the eleventh hour. 

Laila Afifi said her sister, Shakira Richardson, 22 and her friend Alanna Baldwin, had been dropped at the island, without their luggage, by a plane with hundreds of others attending the Fyre Festival, around 12 hours ago. 

The women paid $7000 just to attend the luxury festival, organised by rapper Ja Rule and advertised by celebrities such as Kendall Jenner. 

"When they got to the island they were asking about their accommodation, what they had booked, and they kept coming back saying the tents they had booked had not been finished yet and they said, 'Ok that's fine, we'll just wait', and seven hours later it was the same information given to them," Ms Afifi said. 

"They're stuck on this island, all flights to and from the islands have been cancelled, there's no taxis, the electricity and water have been cut off, they have no where to sleep... they're stranded there."

Ms Afifi's family have contacted the Australian Embassy in a desperate attempt to try and help the pair get off the island. 

"We're trying to contact whoever we can to raise the alert this is quite serious," she said. 

"Shakira's on and offline, it's a bit hard to keep in contact with her and we're stressing out because she can't charge her phone and it's at 30 per cent."

The hashtag #fyrefestival was trending worldwide on Friday. 

Just spoke to friend who is on one of the "rescue" flights back. He's been sitting on the plane for 3 hours waiting to leave.#fyrefestival

The event, which according to The Fashion Law news site, advertised tickets from between $1500 and $250,000 - was scheduled to make its debut this weekend. 

Instead, the 'private island' festival grounds were littered with barely-erected, unfurnished tents and piles of rubbish and the headline act, Blink 182, was cancelled. 

"The gourmet meals that festival-goers were promised consisted of sad-looking cheese sandwiches," the news site said. 

In a Tweet, event organisers said inbound flights to the island had been cancelled and that they were working to "comfortably accommodate" guests already on the island.

"We're currently working through the unexpected start to #FyreFestival. Thank u for bearing with us as we attempt to accommodate guests needs [sic]," the post read. 

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is yet to confirm how many Australians have been caught up in the debacle. 

This is how Fyre Fest handles luggage. Just drop it out of a shipping container. At night. With no lights. #fyrefestival pic.twitter.com/X5CdZRyJWo

These are the secure lockers at Fyre Fest. They forgot to tell us we needed locks. #fyrefestival #fyrefest pic.twitter.com/Tqyjqbg2Gy

You vs. the guy she tells you not to worry about...#fyrefestival pic.twitter.com/k56QrxvSDQ

This story was found at: http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/festival-scam-two-perth-women-stranded-on-remote-bahamas-island-20170428-gvv5ur.html