The United Nations has called Saudi Arabia “the world’s worst humanitarian crisis,” which is why many fans were shocked to see a music festival, attended by some of Hollywood’s elite, being held there.
Instagram account Diet Prada raised the topic of influencers and celebrities at the music festival in a lengthy Insta post.
“What’s worse than an all white @revolve influencer trip? Cashing big fat checks in exchange for #content creation (aka propaganda) to rehabilitate the image of Saudi Arabia, a country said to be causing “the world’s worst humanitarian crisis”, according to the United Nations. According to anonymous sources, six-figure sums were offered for attendance and geo-tagged posts,” the account wrote .
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“Following the government’s pre-meditated murder of journalist Jamal Kashoggi in October 2018 , the arrest of women’s rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul in May 2018, the outing of a gay Saudi journalist and his partner who began receiving death threats from their families (homosexuality is a crime in Saudi Arabia and punishable by death), and countless other human rights abuses, a bevy of supermodels, influencers, celebrities, and musicians convened in Riyadh for the inaugural @mdlbeast,” they continued.
Celebrities like Alessandra Ambrosio, Winnie Harlow, Sofia Richie, Scott Disick, Olivia Culpo and more were paid to attend the music festival.
“Saudi Arabia has been spending billions to change its image in the west, but this is sure to be the most expensive campaign yet,” Diet Prada continued.
Fans have not taken the news of their fav influencers and celebrities attending the festival well.
Twitter is filled with angry sentiments.
It’s safe to say most of these celebrities probably had no idea what their trip to Saudi Arabia would mean to so many people and how deeply it would upset them.
Model Emily Ratajkowski spoke out on Twitter about declining her invitation to the festival.
“I have always wanted to visit Saudi Arabia, but when a recent opportunity came to me involving making and promoting an appearance there, I had to decline. It is very important to me to make clear my support for the rights of women, the LGBTQ community, freedom of expression and the right to a free press. I hope coming forward on this brings more attention to the injustices happening there,” she wrote.