Jared Leto’s mysterious Mars Island retreat promised fans a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to spend time with the Thirty Seconds to Mars frontman.
The band invited fans, who call themselves the Echelon, to the event held on Obonjan, a private island off the coast of Croatia.
The luxury getaway was an immersive alcohol-free three-day retreat, which was said to have cost over $6,499 (£4.8K) to attend.
It included accommodation, workshops, performances and group activities designed around creativity, self-expression and connection.
Attendees were said to have swam, sunbathed, walked on the beach and engaged in yoga, all while celebrating the rock band.
According to Air Mail – which in 2025 published the accounts of sexual improprieties allegedly committed by Jared toward nine women, all of which he denied – the mostly female attendees also ‘meditated, chanted and lounged barefoot in caftans alongside Leto’.
Jared Leto’s mysterious Mars Island retreat promised fans a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to spend time with the Thirty Seconds to Mars frontman
The band invited fans, who call themselves the Echelon, to the event held on Obonjan, a private island off the coast of Croatia
Fans described the event as magical and inspiring as they praised the atmosphere, while they also got the chance to interact with Jared in a more personal setting.
However, snaps from Mars Island quickly attracted attention online.
While Jared’s band called it a ‘spiritual retreat’, the overall vibe of the festival drew widespread comparisons to a cult.
Speculation reached a high after the actor was spotted in a photo standing on a cliff with his arms raised, with fans below him with their arms also out.
Other images showed fans wearing white while sitting on the floor listening to Jared speaking to them while seated on a stool.
‘Yes, this is a cult,’ a 2019 tweet posted by Thirty Seconds to Mars read, adding the hashtag, ‘#MarsIsland.’
Jared was even spotted in an image wearing a shirt reading ‘This is a Cult’ on the back.
Before Mars Island, Thirty Seconds to Mars launched an adults-only event in Malibu, California in 2015 dubbed ‘Camp Mars’.
It was a weekend fan retreat filled with campfires, archery, hiking, and music.
Camp Mars finished in 2019, and though a 2022 Mars Island event was said to have been brewing, it seemingly never materialised.
According to L’Officiel, the band leaned into the ‘cult’ image by ‘playing on journalists telling them that they have a “cult following”.’
Interest in the Mars events has resurfaced amid the news that Jared has been accused by four women of sexual misconduct.
In June 2025, digital media outlet Air Mail published accounts from nine women accusing Jared of sexual impropriety, unwanted advances, and pursuing minors.
Then, a BBC documentary released last week amplified the crisis by featuring on-camera accounts from ten women – including four who explicitly accuse Leto of criminal sexual conduct, statutory rape, and grooming during their teenage years.
One of the women says she was sexually assaulted in a motel bathroom when she was 17.
While Jared’s band called it a ‘spiritual retreat,’ the overall vibe of the festival drew widespread comparisons to a cult
Jared was even spotted in an image wearing a shirt reading ‘This is a Cult’ on the back
Another says the Dallas Buyers Club star threatened her with sexual assault when she was 19, and had been unexpectedly left alone with him in a hotel room.
A third accuser describes how she had under-age sex with the star in California when she was 17 – which would be classified as statutory rape.
Jared ‘shrugged off’ a conversation about the age of consent being 18 in the US state, she alleges.
The fourth woman claims she was groomed by the actor, accusing him of abusing his celebrity status by making repeated sexually explicit phone calls to her when she was 16.
On at least one occasion, she alleges he suggested they should have sex.
The fourth woman was allegedly sent a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) to prevent her from talking about her relationship with Jared, according to the BBC, which claims to have seen the document.
However, she refused to sign.
Four further women allege they received strange and often very sexual phone calls from Leto when they were younger.
Another woman claims, when she was 14, the actor instructed a security guard to take her backstage at a music festival after having made a lewd comment about her chest during an autograph signing.
The girl’s mother confronted Jared, but he repeated the comment, it is alleged.
The allegations all come from between 2002 and 2016 when the star was in his 30s and 40s.
He has since issued a denial since the BBC documentary.
‘I have never sexually assaulted anyone in my entire life. These claims are absolutely and categorically false,’ he said in a statement to The Associated Press.
One unnamed accuser said: ‘This was 25 years ago… he has gotten away with it.’
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