Directed by: Chris Smith
Starring: Billy McFarland, Ja Rule, Andy King, Grant Margolin
Rated: TV-MA
Watch the trailer
Plot
An exclusive behind the scenes look at the infamous unraveling of the Fyre Music Festival. Created by Billy McFarland and rapper Ja Rule, Fyre had been promoted as a luxury music festival on a private island in the Bahamas featuring bikini-clad supermodels, A-List musical performances, and posh amenities. Guests arrived to discover the disastrous reality.
Verdict
This is an amazing train wreck, but it also illustrates how most people online with a following are trying to sell something and slick marketing, that is unfortunately portrayed as organic, can dupe people. Ticket buyers were afraid to miss out and jumped on this when there was no guarantee of anything delivered, all by an unproven company.
McFarland seems oblivious to anything he did wrong and days after getting out of jail for charges related to Fyre, he resorted to phishing email scams. Ja Rule is guilty as well with his best contribution to this film being, "it's not fraud it's... false advertising."
Watch it.
Review
No one comes across as good in this. Even the people that knew this was going to unravel continued, held hostage to a degree because they were hoping they could still get paid after already putting in an enormous effort with no paycheck on the remote chance the festival didn't crash and burn.
McFarland is a con man. He made big promises, banking off his previous venture, Magnesis, which also had some issues with failing to deliver. Magnesis was a paid program to enter luxurious parties and events.
Seemingly people boarded this idea as they were afraid to miss out. The festival was a promotion for the Fyre web site that would rent celebrities, streamlining the process.
The festival is a beguiling idea, to host the most amazing music festival, but it appears there were never any plans, budgets, or contracts drafted before they embarked on the project. Everyone went with it. They started selling tickets before they knew capacity. It sold out in two days.
This documentary is a warning of how easy it is to start a shell of a company, have people board it, and then sell an idea with little intent to fulfill and no guarantee to consumers.
The initially planning stages appear to be Ja Rule and McFarland getting drunk on an island while they pay Instagram influencers to advertise. Instagram later revised policies, forcing influencers to reveal when their posts were paid advertisements.
The festival should have been planned out at least twelve months in advance. Fyre did it, well attempted it, in two. The festival was originally going to be held on a deserted island McFarland bought. The one contract stipulation was that he couldn't mention it was previously Pablo Escobar's island. That was highlighted in the first marketing video, and they lost the island. Moving to an inhabited Bahamian island, marketing photos edited the new island to look deserted.
Luxury tents initially promised turned out to be leftover hurricane tents found on the island. The people that paid for villas didn't get them because Fyre never paid the rent. Tents and everything inside were soaked due to a downpour the day before the festival. Though festival attendants had trouble even getting to the site because there was no transportation.
While people were claiming tents, workers were still putting things together.
The festival was ultimately canceled, though most people had no way to leave. After McFarland got out of jail on bond, he teamed up with someone else for an email phishing scam. This is days after getting out of jail.
He claimed he was broke but was staying in a nice penthouse. He failed to pay many, many people.
McFarland ultimately went to jail for six years. In an immediate conference as the Fyre team attempts to somehow fix the debacle, one of the employees states the festival was fraud. Ja Rule claims it was false advertising, not fraud. Ja Rule went on to partner with someone else pushing a similar platform.
This documentary was made by Jerry media who did the marketing for the festival. While their involvement is minimized in the documentary, their marketing is a big part of what hooked people. They had to know the plan was underdeveloped, but they went with it to. Is this documentary a way for them to recoup lost cost? Did McFarland fail to pay them too, or did they get paid up front since they were in on the ground level. Those are important questions since these are the same people making this documentary. Jerry media team members sit down for interviews in this documentary, but they don't disclose they are also making the documentary.
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