Tens of thousands of pounds have been raised for Bahamian restaurant workers whose life savings were wiped out in a multimillion-pound fraud by the organisers of the Fyre festival.

Maryann Rolle said her team worked round the clock preparing 1,000 meals a day for festival staff but went unpaid when it imploded in April 2017.

In an interview for a Netflix documentary on how the “party of the decade” fell into chaos, Rolle said she lost $50,000 (£39,000) of her life savings.

Since the film’s release last week, nearly $80,000 has been raised in online donations for Rolle after she said her life had been changed forever by the fiasco.

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The festival, fronted by the serial fraudster Billy McFarland and rapper Ja Rule, was promoted as an ultra-luxurious event on the Bahamian island of Exuma in April and May of 2017. It was promoted on social media by supermodels and Instagram “influencers”, including Kendall Jenner, Bella Hadid and Emily Ratajkowski, coaxing people into buying ticket packages ranging from $1,200 to more than $100,000.

Yet when ticket-holders arrived on the island they found their “villas” were in fact leaky hurricane disaster tents, the gourmet food consisted of cheese sandwiches, and music acts including Blink-182, Migos and Drake were either not booked or had cancelled.

The documentary, Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened, carried interviews with a number of Fyre festival insiders who said they had warned McFarland multiple times that customers were being misled and they would not be able to stage the event.

In October, McFarland was jailed for six years after admitting defrauding investors of $26m. He pleaded guilty to a separate $100,000 fraudulent ticket-selling scheme orchestrated after his arrest for the festival scam.

McFarland’s scheme left hundreds of customers stranded on the island for hours with little food, water or shelter. Their plight initially provoked an outpouring of schadenfreude on social media.

There was, however, sympathy for the unpaid Bahamian workers who featured in the Netflix documentary. In six days, more than 2,400 people have donated to Rolle and her staff on the GoFundMe page, which has been verified by the online fundraiser and endorsed by the film’s producers.

Rolle, who runs a restaurant called Exuma Point on Great Exuma island, wrote on the page: “It has been an unforgettable experience catering to the organizers of Fyre Festival. Back in April 2017 I pushed myself to the limits catering no less than a 1,000 meals per day.

“Breakfast, lunch and dinner were all prepared and delivered by Exuma Point to Coco Plum Beach, and Rokers Point where the main events were scheduled to take place. Organizers would also visit my Exuma Point location to enjoy the prepared meals.

“Fyre Fest organizers were also checked into all the rooms at Exuma Point. As I make this plea it’s hard to believe and embarrassing to admit that I was not paid … I was left in a big hole! My life was changed forever, and my credit was ruined by Fyre Fest. My only resource today is to appeal for help.”

She added: “There is an old saying that goes ‘bad publicity is better than no publicity’ and I pray that whoever reads this plea is able to assist.”

McFarland said last March that he deeply regretted his actions and had “grossly underestimated the resources that would be necessary to hold an event of this magnitude”. Sentencing him in October, the judge, Naomi Reice Buchwald, called him a “serial fraudster”.