Fyre Festival was billed as the supremely luxurious, tropical island version of Coachella, with a marketing campaign that involved Bella Hadid and Emily Ratajkowski frolicking in the crystal clear waters of the Bahamas and a killer line-up, but it turned out to be one of the most disastrous events of the last decade.
The brainchild of Ja Rule and entrepreneur Billy McFarland saw hundreds of guests – who had all paid between $2131-$4000 for tickets – stranded on Exuma Bay, with no infrastructure, no musical acts – save a local Bahamian band – and disaster relief tents in place of the luxury accommodation they were promised.
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Bands like Blink 182 pulled out amid rumours that musicians weren’t paid, Wall Street Journal reported at the time, and Bella Hadid apologised for promoting the event on social media.
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And then, the formal apology from Fyre Media came. And it went something like this:
“We thought we were ready, but then everyone arrived.”
That’s a direct quote.
Now, Netflix has finally dropped the first trailer for the highly-anticipated documentary, FYRE.
The documentary will feature exclusive footage and interviews with the festival’s founders.
The doco will show first-hand what it was like arriving on the island – from emergency camping tents, dishevelled food and lots of tears.
A second trailer has since been released and it depicts the disaster that was the construction of the festival, together with the mayhem that ensued on the day of the event.
McFarland was sentenced to six years in jail for fraud after a US judge called him “a fraudster and not merely a misguided youngster” and didn’t buy his plea of mental illness.
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“While my intention and effort was directed to organising a legitimate festival, I grossly underestimated the resources that would be necessary to hold an event of this magnitude,” he said during his trial. “In an attempt to raise what I thought were needed funds, I lied to investors about various aspects of Fyre Media and my personal finances.”
Fyre drops on Netflix on January 18th.
