Influencers face backlash over Saudi-based MDL Beast music festival - Page Six

Celebrities ignited a wave of backlash over the weekend after posting pictures from the MDL Beast music festival in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Actors Armie Hammer and Ryan Phillippe attended the festival — sponsored by the kingdom – and were criticized for ignoring the country’s human rights violations while flooding their Instagram accounts with party pics.

Hammer called the festival a “cultural shift.”

But one of his followers blasted him for “promoting a country that kills journalists, LGTBQ+ people, restricts the lives of women.”

Fashion industry watchdog Diet Prada bashed the MDL Beast Festival and its attendees in a post accompanied by photos from the event.

“Cashing big fat checks in exchange for #content creation (aka propaganda) to rehabilitate the image of Saudi Arabia,” the account wrote.

Some of the country’s most controversial recent incidents are the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by in October 2018 and the arrest and deportation of women’s rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul in May 2018.

But models like Irina Shayk did not seem fazed by the kingdom’s alleged malfeasance.

Shayk uploaded photos to Instagram while backstage and in a hotel, along with best friend Stella Maxwell.

A promotional photo released by Saudi Arabia’s MDL Beast FestivalMD Beast via Getty Images

Also in attendance were “Gossip Girl” actor Ed Westwick, Alessandra Ambrosio, Winnie Harlow, and Sofia Richie with her boyfriend Scott Disick.

Richie posted a photo with herself posing alongside friends with the caption “Saudi Girls” — from Riyadh’s Ritz-Carlton hotel.

The hotel was the site where Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman detained his political opponents in the fall of 2017.

Journalist and friend of Khashoggi, Karen Attiah of The Washington Post, blasted Conde Nast and its magazine Glamour UK for promoting the MDL Beast Festival.

“I, along with activists and journalists have been living for the past year with risk and intimidation for daring to speak out about Jamal Khashoggi’s murder, Mohammed bin Salman and the abuses under his watch,” she wrote on Twitter.

“For Glamour UK to take money from KSA.. it’s a slap in the face.”

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Influencers face backlash over Saudi-based MDL Beast music festival - Page Six
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