Reese Barcelon
Good food and good music are one of the main ingredients of a successful music festival. After the ever-successful Coachella, more and more enthusiasts are starting to support amazing events even the local ones.
While many of the small organizers are successful in this matter, one of the big-time coordinators seemed to have failed despite of their budget and resources.
A newborn festival named Fyre Festival had resurfaced last December 2016, promising luxurious yachts, a great lineup, crystal-clear waters and the piglets frolicking with the supermodels. It came from Billy McFarland and Ja Rule’s idea and made it come to life after some point.
Fyre Festival promised a high-end party in the Exumas District of the Bahamas, with a gourmet food especially prepared in exchange for ticket prices ranging from $450 to $250,000. The promised lineup comprised of artists, including Blink-182, which gave excitement to the public.
After a few logistics that worked out, the festival began to kick start by having supermodels promote the said event. According to sources, Kendall Jenner was paid an huge amount of $250,000 for the endorsement. While Bella Hadid, along with other models, were flown into the Bahamas to star for the video advertisements and some photoshoots. In addition, they also had some Instagram superstars to promote the event for $10,000 per post.
However, things went awry when only a few influencers have RSVP’d, a few days before the party. As said by an informant, McFarland refused to back down rather than being embarrassed by the number of attendees. They were unable to secure the private island which was originally used for their advertisement, and shifted the site to a nearby location. Seems like luck isn’t on McFarland’s side, as three staging and production companies got fired from the festival – resulting to him volunteering to do thing by himself.
Shockingly, the one of the headliners of the event – Blink-182 announced their cancellation for the festival the night before after learning the situation.
Furthermore, the other artists also got advised not to come.
Despite of the cancellation, a lot of enthusiasts who bought tickets still opted to come, only to arrive at a half-finished festival site which looked like the shooting location of Hunger Games.
The yachts aren’t visible, no gourmet catering, or even the lavish party ambiance promised to them. As a matter of fact, the floors of the tents prepared are wet. Not to mention that their luggage are simply thrown on the beach in the middle of the darkness.
To add more to people’s dismay, a storm came on the first day of the event which had blown half of the tents and became the reason for the sewage facilities to break out. However, the turquoise water is present but infested with sharks. Who wants to go first?
Attendees who were promised a gourmet cuisine, were offered a sandwich – that is ham and cheese, at the very least.
The “gourmet cuisine” this weekend was included in the ticket cost. We are being fed salads and ham and cheese sandwiches out of this tent pic.twitter.com/MRv7U0RiyM
— dylan (@DylanACOP) April 28, 2017
Stuck at #fyrefestival trying to leave for the last 8 hours. barley any food or water or security or electricity pic.twitter.com/jHPMnJw5gx
— Lamaan (@LamaanElGallal) April 28, 2017
Fyre Festival offered a refund, and some were even offered a VIP pass for their next event in 2018. Also, they had released their statement in their website.
“Yesterday was a very challenging day for all of us. But we would like to fully explain what happened.
Billy McFarland and Ja Rule started a partnership over a mutual interest in technology, the ocean, and rap music. This unique combination of interests led them to the idea that, through their combined passions, they could create a new type of music festival and experience on a remote island.
They simply weren’t ready for what happened next, or how big this thing would get. They started by making a website and launching a viral campaign. Ja helped book talent, and they had hundreds of local Bahamians join in the effort. Suddenly, they found themselves transforming a small island and trying to build a festival. Thousands of people wanted to come. They were excited, but then the roadblocks started popping up.
As amazing as the islands are, the infrastructure for a festival of this magnitude needed to be built from the ground up. So, we decided to literally attempt to build a city. We set up water and waste management, brought an ambulance from New York, and chartered 737 planes to shuttle our guests via 12 flights a day from Miami. We thought we were ready, but then everyone arrived.
The team was overwhelmed. The airport was jam packed. The buses couldn’t handle the load. And the wind from rough weather took down half of the tents on the morning our guests were scheduled to arrive. This is an unacceptable guest experience and the Fyre team takes full responsibility for the issues that occurred.
Everyone was very concerned for our guests. They needed a place to sleep and everyone did their absolute best to rebuild. We took everyone to the beach and built as many tents and beds as fast as possible, but as more guests arrived, we were simply in over our heads. Ultimately, we didn’t think security could keep up, so we had to postpone the festival. The response to the postponement was immediate and intense. We had no other options, so we began the process of getting guests quickly and safely back to Miami, which continued through the weekend. Our top priority as a company is to ensure the comfort and safe return home of all of our guests.
Then something amazing happened: venues, bands, and people started contacting us and said they’d do anything to make this festival a reality and how they wanted to help. The support from the musical community has been overwhelming and we couldn’t be more humbled or inspired by this experience. People were rooting for us after the worst day we’ve ever had as a company. After speaking with our potential partners, we have decided to add more seasoned event experts to the 2018 Fyre Festival, which will take place at a United States beach venue.
All festival goers this year will be refunded in full. We will be working on refunds over the next few days and will be in touch directly with guests with more details. Also, all guests from this year will have free VIP passes to next year’s festival.
We’re grateful for the Bahamian Government and The Bahamas Ministry of Tourism for their assistance during this challenging time—their efforts have been exemplary. We want to thank the people of the Bahamas for their support and for graciously allowing us the privilege of visiting their islands. We apologize for any inconvenience the past 24-hours has caused and we look forward to making a considerable donation to the Bahamas Red Cross Society as part of our initiatives. We need to make this right. And once we make this right, then we will put on the dream festival we sought to have since the inception of Fyre.
Thank you for all your continued patience and understanding. We apologize for what all of our guests and staff went through over the last 24 hours and will work tirelessly to make this right. Please check our official social media channels (@fyrefestival) for further important updates.”
On the other hand, Ja Rule stated that he was ‘heartbroken’ and apologized as it was “not his fault”.
Meanwhile, the Twitter netizens shared sympathy to those who attended, while the others said that it was well-deserved.
In conclusion, everybody deserves to get what they had paid for. Be it small or a huge amount, it is still hard-earned therefore should be put into good use. As for the festival organizers, big events need to undergo thorough planning and preparation. They did well with the promotion, but it seemed like it was the only thing they were able to do that can be considered “posh.”
Festivals aren’t about the size or popularity, but rather the success and preparedness of the production staff to be able to deliver the said event properly.
