You heard about this right? Not the Manti Te’o thing, we ALL heard about that. I’m talking about Fyre Fest, the ‘advertised-as-better-than-Coachella’ festival that could not have been worse had it literally been on fire. Here’s a quick expectation vs. reality to jog your memory.
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Long story short, Fyre Festival founders Billy McFarland and Ja Rule advertised the fest as an ultra-luxurious event spanning two weekends. Guests would fly to a remote spot in the Bahamas, stay in spacious beach cabanas, and enjoy a weekend of grade-A music, gourmet food, and the company of beautiful celebrities. The promotional videos featured big-name models such as Bella Hadid and Kendall Jenner. Oh, and let’s not forget that ticket packages cost anywhere from $500 to $12,000; Pocket change for the best weekend of your life right? Well, to say that it didn’t go as planned would be an understatement.
As the festival approached, bands announced left and right that they were pulling out due to unclear logistics. This was just the beginning. Guests landed and were given their luggage hours later…at night…when a shipping container appeared and people started throwing suitcases out of it. The beach cabanas turned out to be half-built disaster relief tents. The meals from celebrity chefs everyone was promised…I think it’s safe to say Gordon Ramsay wouldn’t touch them with a 10-foot pole. People couldn’t get out of there fast enough. And when I say that, I mean they physically could not get out. Festival-goers were stranded in airports for hours, some with no food or water, waiting for the next flight off the island.
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There is so much more to the Fyre Festival story, but I don’t want to give away everything you’ll see in Netflix’s Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened. Releasing one week from today on 1/18, the documentary will explore everything mentioned here, in detail, as well as the aftermath. Fyre Festival founder, Billy McFarland, has since been sentenced to prison after defrauding investors out of millions of dollars in various ticketing schemes. He may owe $26 million for fraud, but at least Billy can call himself the King of Festival Catfishing.
Let us know what you think of the Netflix documentary or comment your thoughts on the festival itself…if you can even call it a festival.
Till next time Festy Fam.
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