Recently, Netflix and Hulu debuted two independent documentaries chronicling the events that led up to and the aftermath of Fyre Festival. The “would-be” event of the festival season attempted to top the likes of Coachella and other celebrity-exclusive events. In 2017, Fyre Festival, a three-day festival which claimed to be an intimate party with the social elites and influencers, became a publicity nightmare with attendees having access to limited supplies like food, water and proper lodging on a crowded island not meant to contain that amount of visitors. Now it has been discovered that the whole festival meant to promote the app Fyre, was part of an elaborate scam that landed the CEO in federal prison for a six-year sentence. Both documentaries give a behind-the-scenes look as the events unfold with interviews from those involved and by people who were scammed.
To tell this story properly, you need to start from the beginning— Billy McFarland, the founder and CEO of Fyre Media. McFarland was once the CEO of many similar ventures like Magnises, a credit card company for the wealthy that promoted and provided exclusive perks for its members. Exclusive clubhouses, V.I.P tickets and luxury accommodations were the main draw to potential cardholders but most of the perks seemed to fall through last minute. The documentary explained that most of the Magnises “perks” were scams to keep members paying for it’s services. As of now, the company seems to have gone dark. The website has been removed and the only remaining evidence of the company are its social media accounts which have not been updated as of April 2017.
The documentaries go on to explain that McFarland along with American rapper Ja Rule, set out to start a mobile booking app, Fyre. Styled the same way as the dating app Tinder, which would allow users to “match” with entertainers and book them for events. With this goal, they started the company Fyre Media and came up with a media campaign that would fit this generation, to promote their new app. This became what is known today as Fyre Festival. Based of the ideology of our generations “fear of missing out”, McFarland and Rule worked to create an exclusive festival on an island in the Bahamas that only those with deep pockets would be able to attend. This would give their app social buzz and, if successful, would launch their product to the public with a positive reputation.
Netflix’s documentary “Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened” and Hulu’s “Fyre Fraud” examined the pitfalls in planning and execution from all perspectives. Later, pulling off the mask of the successful CEO and company that McFarland made himself out to be. From the untrained and ill equipped staff to the false advertising of the event and unanswered questions of ticket holders , there was no stone left unturned in the quest for the truth. It was discovered that McFarland defrauded $27.4 million dollars from investors of Fyre Festival and ran another concert-ticketing scam while on bail. McFarland claimed in multiple different statements in the documentaries that this event was meant to appeal to the “middle-class American” looking to live the elegant lifestyle that this event would provide. Using Instagram models and influencers to create hype, and offering ticket packages and exclusive events on the website for anyone to purchase at prices ranging from $50 to thousands of dollars. In the end, most of those funds were either part of the defrauding scam or used as “personal funds to pay for McFarland’s lifestyle”, according to an October article of Bloomberg.
After further investigation into the documentaries, there might be some foul play at hand. According to a Jan. 16 article in the Los Angeles Times, Hulu’s documentary directors Jenner Furst and Julia Willoughby Nason, paid McFarland an undisclosed amount of money to license footage and indemnify the production from potential claims of defamation. Netflix partnered with Jerry Media for the documentary, the company that had a heavy hand in the social media campaigns for Fyre Media and ultimately, Fyre Festival. After the downfall of the event, the restaurant owner at the Island who catered for Fyre Festival, started a GoFundme to get out of debt and as of writing this, raised over $190,000 dollars to start fresh. Some ticket holders are still looking for refunds, while others settled a $100 million class action lawsuit against McFarland. McFarland by law, is barred from holding a CEO or executive position of any company or business venture in the future.
