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The app before the festival -

Fyre was initially an app that people could use to book high-end talent for their events. The festival was suggested as a way to promote it.

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Business partners -

Billy McFarland, CEO of Fyre Media Inc., met Ja Rule through his work in the industry, and enlisted the rapper as a celebrity partner.

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All about the hype -

Fyre's marketing campaign centered around having models and influencers posting a plain orange tile on Instagram, all at the same time. It then followed up with a promotional video shoot in the Bahamas with the models.

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Models at work -

A number of famous models appeared in the promotional video, including Hailey Bieber, Emily Ratajkowski, and Bella Hadid.

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The Kendall Jenner effect -

While Kendall Jenner didn't appear in the promotional video, she was still hired to promote the festival on Instagram. Once she did, almost every influencer wanted to be involved. She was supposedly paid US$250,000 for her post.

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Keep Escobar out of it -

The festival was planned to be held at Norman's Cay, which was once used as a transshipment base for smuggling cocaine by the Medellín cartel. The promo video was short there, advertising the island as "once owned by Pablo Escobar." The owners immediately canceled the arrangement, as they didn't want to be associated with the cartel.

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New location -

The festival was then relocated to Roker's Point, which wasn't a private island like they've promised festivalgoers.

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An immersive festival -

Described as an "immersive festival," it was supposed to be over two weekends in 2017: April 28-30 and May 5-7.

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Ticket prices -

Day tickets were sold from US$500 to $1,500. VIP packages, which included airfare and luxury tent accommodations, were sold for up to $12,000.

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How they tried to solve the water problem -

Just before the festival was due to begin, Bahamian customs seized trucks full of water that came with an additional cost: a US$175,000 import fee.

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One for the team -

McFarland apparently called up event producer Andy King, and asked him to head down to customs and offer to perform intimate acts in exchange for the water! King then apparently made his way over there but was denied by the officer...

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No acts wanted to participate -

None of the acts actually showed up once word of the disastrous reality got out on social media.

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Blink-182 officially canceled -

Blink-182 were one of the few bands to officially announce that they had canceled their appearance. They claimed they didn’t think the festival could provide what they needed to give the fans a proper show.

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Negative Instagram comments were being deleted -

As it got closer to the festival, ticket holders started asking more and more questions on Fyre Festival's Instagram about amenities and lodging that had not been confirmed. Eventually, the organizers just started deleting negative comments off the account.

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The wristbands -

Realizing they didn't have enough money for the festival, McFarland tried to get attendees to add money to wristbands that they could use to buy things while at the event.

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Getting more money -

This involved people getting phone calls from someone telling them they should add money, and claiming that the majority of attendees were adding around US$3,000.

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There was no VIP flight -

Ticket holders were told they would fly in from Miami on a custom, VIP-configured Boeing 737. In reality, they ended up waiting for hours at the airport.

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They used hurricane tents -

Attendees of Fyre Festival could rent tents or 'villas' to stay in, but they ended up being far from luxurious. Instead, they used actual hurricane tents left over from Hurricane Matthew.

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It was a mess -

After attendees were told to go and pick out their tents, one social media influencer described how he and his friends ransacked the tents around theirs so that they wouldn’t have any neighbors. They poked holes in the walls, flipped mattresses, and urinated on them.

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Reality bites -

It wasn't until the people started to arrive that the disastrous reality of the situation seemed to fully dawn on McFarland. He was hard to find most of the time, and rumors floated about his absence.

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The ticket cost was meant to include gourmet food -

Guests were expecting Starr Catering Group to be there, but the group had terminated its services with Fyre in early April 2017. Instead, there were makeshift food tents, serving cheese sandwiches and salads.

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People tried to leave -

With all the chaos, people tried to fly back to Miami. But for some, that wasn't possible, and they ended up stranded at the airport.

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Bahamians who worked on setting up the festival weren't paid -

People who worked for Fyre, the app, not the festival, such as engineers and designers, lost their jobs. Some even spent money for the festival on their personal credit cards. And on top of that, there were the many Bahamian locals who set up the event site and who were owed a total of US$250,000.

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McFarland continued defrauding people after the festival -

After he was arrested for fraud in relation to Fyre, while he was out of bail McFarland continued defrauding people by selling fake event tickets via NYC VIP Access.

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His sentence -

In October 2018, he was sentenced to six years in prison, three years probation, and to pay restitution of US$26 million. McFarland was released from prison in 2022, after serving nearly four years.

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Also scammed? -

Ja Rule also faced multiple lawsuits in the aftermath. He apologized to everyone on Instagram shortly after the festival ended, though he also claimed that what happened was not his fault. He later tweeted that he, too, had been scammed by McFarland.

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Documentaries -

Both Hulu's 'Fyre Fraud' (2019) and Netflix’s 'Fyre: The Greatest Party that Never Happened' (2019) expose the chain of events that created the fiasco that was Fyre Festival.

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Everything was recorded -

Not only did Fyre Festival become the perfect documentary subject thanks to its massive failure, but also because McFarland wanted everything leading up to the festival recorded. There's even footage of him in the film from when he was out on bail after the festival.

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Fyre Festival 2 -

Fyre Festival is allegedly back for a sequel. According to McFarland, Fyre Festival 2 is heading to Mexico in May 2025 and tickets are currently on sale.

Sources: (CNN) (BBC) (Business Insider) (People)

See also: The art of the con—history's most infamous scammers

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