Flo Rida Ordered To Pay Aussie Festival $400,000 After No-Show

American rapper Flo Rida has been ordered to pay over $400,000 in damages to organisers of the Fat As Butter festival after a ruling at the NSW District Court.

Billed as one of the festival's headliners last year, the rapper - real name Tramar Dillard - was a no-show at the Newcastle festival last October, in what turned into a very messy and public dispute between the artist at the festival's promoter, Mothership Music.

At the time the festival organisers told theMusic.com.au that they had worked "overtime" to ensure his appearance, with promoter Brent Lean saying, "So we had limousines in Sydney [to take him to Newcastle] but he wouldn't leave the hotel."

The costs of these vehicles and flights, as well as loss of revenue, are included in the $417,345 that Flo Rida and his Australian agent Darren Ayre have been ordered to pay.

According to the Newcastle Herald, Judge Judith Gibson said, "The no-show by Flo Rida damaged the trading reputation of the plaintiff, impacting its ability to stage future events, attract patrons and compete with rivals in the music event industry."

She continued, "Sponsors were lost as news of the no-show spread far and wide through the use of social media such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube."

Neither Flo Rida nor his agent attended court on Friday, in which Mothership Music produced a number of abusive emails from punters following news of Flo Rida's cancellation.

Flo Rida was also late to another performance in Sydney that day at Mounties. Their original statement read, "Mounties (like the Fat as Butter Festival in Newcastle) pre paid his performance fee in full. We were also contractually obligated to run the event as an all ages show so it is reasonable to assume that if these are the demands of the artist and his management, then they would respect the need to arrive to the venue on time.

“And every time we got our hopes up that he was in transit to the venue, we would find out that he had not in fact left his hotel room. The most difficult part was then turning him away from the Club when he finally arrived nearly three hours after he was due on stage. We did not believe he was in a suitable condition to perform.”

Responses from Flo Rida's camp at the time appeared to confuse the two events.

Despite the financial hit of last year's festival, Fat As Butter is going ahead this year with headliners such as Good Charlotte, 360 and Grinspoon.