The saga that never, ever, ends
Hey, remember Fyre Festival? The luxury, Bahamas-based music event that charged its guests $12,000 a ticket? You know – the Ja Rule-hosted shit show that went horribly wrong when the organisers failed to organise... well, anything? At the time, attendees took to Twitter to share their experiences of the festival, which had apparently been set on a shark-infested island of “feral dogs”, half-built tents and rubbish heaps.
Both Ja Rule and his entrepreneur partner Billy McFarland were quick to issue apologies over Fyre’s lack of organisation, revealing in an official statement that it was the site’s water and waste management that had caused the problems. “We decided to literally attempt to build a city,” they explained back in May. “We thought we were ready, but then everyone arrived.”
Unfortunately, since then, a number of other embarrassing revelations have come to light. According to reports, the pair failed to pay the festival staff, and are now facing a $100 million class action complaint, several fraud and breach of contract lawsuits, and an investigation from the FBI. To make things even worse, a chain of emails from three weeks before the festival start date have been leaked and published on Mic. And guess what? They MAKE EVERYONE LOOK REALLY BAD. See below:
This message from April 3 (bear in mind the festival was due to begin on April 28), reveals that the organisers were fully aware that the site’s sanitation situation was a “RED FLAG.” This email from Fyre festival producer Lyly Villanueva discusses the cost of shipping toilets and showers over to the site. “We have to move quickly on this or we are in a shitty place,” she wrote, before slipping in a little “lol” for good measure. Because, to be fair, that was quite lol. Lol.
Fyre Media president Conall Arora’s response, here. In an effort to save money – because they didn’t have enough from all those £12,000 tickets obviously, sad – he writes that they could probably “get away” with just having 75 toilets for the 600 guests. He also suggests sending over “port a potties” instead of toilets. Can someone please explain to me what a “port a potty” is? Why have those words ever been put together? I’m so desperately depressed right now. Lol.
More stuff. This time discussing the fact that almost 600 people would be without basic housing on the site. The email arrived on April 20, just over a week before the festival was due to start. The organisers’ solution to this problem? Bringing in a cruise ship to host 225 people, and “cutting” the “50 lowest paying customers.” FYI, the lowest paying customers were the ones who paid $4,000 for their tickets. Lol.
Finally, just six days before the festival starts, the seriousness of these issues start to sink in. On April 22, the organisers observe that the festival guests – particularly the “influencers” who are attending – were not going to “receive what they were promised.” Do you... think... so? Are you sure? “It was clear they expected their own rooms at private villas on the beach,” writes Fyre consultant Marc Weinstein. “Of course, these villas don’t exist.” Lol.
At the time of writing, neither McFarland or Ja Rule have commented on the leak.
For more lol, read the original Fyre festival pitch deck here. It is worse than this.