The failed Fyre Festival has garnished a great deal of attention in the last month receiving two documentaries from both Netflix and Hulu. During the spring of 2018, entrepreneur Billy McFarland and rapper Ja Rule began promoting a music festival in the Bahamas.
The festival’s first video advertisement promised a luxury music festival on a remote private island once owned by Pablo Escobar. The advertisement featured private jets, yachts and models, but unfortunately McFarland and Rule were unable to deliver on their promise of a luxury experience.
Originally the festival was created with the intention of promoting McFarland’s talent booking app, Fyre. Instead, his venture ended with multiple class action lawsuits in addition to an FBI investigation of fraud charges.
Fyre Festival began it’s advertisement campaign in Oct. 2016, hiring a crew of models and bragging of a pending partnership with Samsung.
Soon after the publishing of their first advertisement video, the owner of the island refused to rent out the island. In fact, they never agreed to advertising that said the island would be located there.
Without notifying attendees, the festival’s location was moved to Great Exuma. This populated island didn’t come close to offering the private, luxurious experience advertised.
By March 2017, McFarland and the event coordinators realized they wouldn’t have enough funds to finish their festival. McFarland launch a search for a second round of investors.
This wouldn’t be the last time McFarland would attempt to raise funds. During the final weeks before the festival, the organizers invited attendees to load money onto their wristbands available for all their transactions. This money would be used up to the last minutes before the opening of the festival.
A clear theme between both Netflix and Hulu is McFarland’s and Rule’s unpreparedness to host a festival. Both Rule and McFarland lacked any experience creating a music festival, nonetheless a luxury festival in the Bahamas.
When the weekend of the festival arrived, housing, amenities, and even all of the festivals performances were nonexistent. Fyre festival’s unwillingness to postpone or cancel the event posed great deal of harm to all attendees.