Coachella of chaos: How the luxurious Fyre Festival went down in flames

They marketed before starting any planning - In an interview with Vice, McFarland said they just started the website to see if people were interested, and it wasn’t until they had thousands of people on board that they decided to essentially install a small town (with a new sewage system) on the bare land to support a festival.

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The advertised island - The venue was to be set on a remote, tropical, and private Bahamian island of “Fyre Clay,” which they said was previously owned by Colombian narco-billionaire Pablo Escobar.

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The real island - Not only did “Fyre Clay” not exist, but the real venue was a waterside development under construction on Great Exuma, which was neither private nor remote, and never owned by Escobar.

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The cost of a ticket - Tickets cost up to US$12,000, attracting a crowd of elite millennials. If you think no one would pay that much, around 5,000 people were expected on each of the festival’s two weekends.

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Extravagance on extravagance - Fyre’s website was also advertising luxury packages, including a US$400,000 “Artist’s Palace,” that included four beds and dinner with one of the artists.

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They were already in debt before constructing the festival grounds - In the weeks before the festival, organizers borrowed as much as US$7 million in a last-minute scramble to fund the doomed event, according to Bloomberg News.

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And they still needed more money - The festival then told attendees that the event would be cashless so that people would load money electronically, and so that money could be used to pay off investors. “We recommend adding at least $300-$500 per day,” their email said.

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Few people and investors got their money back - Festival goers weren’t using the money on their “FyreBands” to purchase the extras that were promised, such as boat rides, tours, and massages. Instead, they got the opposite of relaxation for no extra charge.

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High-profile promoters got on board - Models like Bella Hadid and other media personalities appeared in the festival’s idyllic promotional video, in which the festival claims to be “on the boundaries of the impossible.” Unfortunately, they were on the wrong side of impossible.

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They promoted it on social media - Digital influencers on Instagram, including models like Hailey Baldwin, posted promotional material for the event—many of whom didn’t initially disclose that they had been paid to do so, which violates federal law.

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Kendall Jenner went from Pepsi to this - The Kardashian family socialite was reportedly paid US$250,000 to post about the event, which she didn’t disclose before posting and which she quietly tried to forget—much like she probably did with the Pepsi ordeal that same year.

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Emily Ratajkowski used the hashtag #ad - The model was reportedly the only one, though The Federal Trade Commission said #ad only worked if it was at the beginning of paid posts, and that the hashtag alone was not a sufficient disclaimer.

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Last minute changed flights were the first sign - The website said custom VIP chartered aircrafts would bring guests to and from the island, but in the days leading to the event, people’s itineraries were shifting and flight confirmations weren’t sent out.

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The luxurious villas advertised - The website had promised luxury villas and tents, or “modern, eco-friendly, geodesic domes,” as they put it.

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The reality -

What the festival goers arrived to was a free-for-all of tents, which looked suspiciously like disaster relief tents from USAid, topped off with mattresses wet from the storm earlier that morning.

(Photo: Wikimedia/CC BY 2.0)

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The gourmet meals - One Twitter user wrote that "the 'catering' (which cost extra) was a slice of untoasted bread, two slices prepackaged cheese, and a side salad."

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And as for the actual music of the music festival? - When people arrived, the musical acts weren’t confirmed, artists backed out, and since the tents weren’t set up, people were brought to a makeshift beach stage with music playing from speakers.

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Lax with luggage - As if that weren’t enough, patrons’ luggage was delivered in a shipping container at night, with bags tossed into the dark, inevitably resulting in theft and lost property.

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A perfect representation of the festival’s safety measures - They provided very few, very small lockers, but forgot the actual locks.

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Descent into madness - No one knew where to go or what to do, there was no music, and very little food, water, electricity, or security. The situation might be better known as "Lord of the Fyre Flies."

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The US Embassy had to get involved - People were live-tweeting the frenzy, and the Embassy had to step in to help people get off the island since the organizers weren't organized enough to do it.

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Many took it as a chance to make fun of the 1% - Those who couldn’t afford to attend the festival typically saw it either as an elaborate trap for rich, naive millennials, or as a hilarious joke where spoiled, sheltered kids were “suffering” by having to eat cheese sandwiches instead of sushi.

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All in all, it was a mess - The festival was pure chaos and the organizers announced they would postpone it, even though it was probably a little late for that decision, as people were already trapped in airports and on the tarmac.

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They made an interesting offer - The festival said attendees could choose between a full refund or VIP tickets to the following year's festival. Can you guess what people chose?

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All signs seem to lead to scam - The organizer claimed it was the “worst day of [his] life,” and described the fiasco as essentially an act of God, though his career is allegedly overflowing with similar incidents of grand promises and little to no follow-through.

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Ja Rule said it wasn’t his fault - He tweeted that his immediate concern was getting people safely off the island, that he was heartbroken, and said it was “NOT A SCAM” and “NOT MY FAULT.” He was recently dismissed from the class action lawsuit against the festival.

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A long road on the wrong side of the law - Nearly a dozen lawsuits popped up, including a US$100 million class action. McFarland was placed under arrest in June 2017, charged with wire fraud related to Fyre Festival, but was released on a US$300,000 bail.

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The embers of Fyre still burn - All in all, McFarland plead guilty to three charges of wire fraud, one count of bank fraud, and one count of false statements. In addition, he’ll be charged for selling fraudulent tickets to big events like the Met Gala, Burning Man, and Coachella—which he did while he was out on bail.

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6 years of jail time - Despite the multitude of charges, McFarland was eventually sentenced to six years in prison on October 11, 2018.

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Netflix -

Netflix created a documentary on the failed music festival called 'Fyre,' giving "a first-hand look into the disastrous crash of Fyre as told by the organizers themselves." Hulu also made a documentary on the catastrophe, called 'Fyre Fraud.'

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Coachella of chaos: How the luxurious Fyre Festival went down in flames

Ja Rule dismissed from the Fyre Festival lawsuit

11/07/19 | StarsInsider

LIFESTYLE Curiosity

Fyre Festival, an exclusive event on a private island in the Bahamas, was supposed to be the cultural event of a lifetime, the “Coachella in the Caribbean,” with top acts, gourmet food, glamping, and a crowd of elite millennials to enjoy it with. Instead, it was a highly-ridiculed fiasco that left hundreds stranded on an island, scammed out of thousands of dollars. Check out this gallery to learn more about this crazy story and the karma still coming back to its organizer.