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Fyre Festival: Here's What Happened | The Greatest Party That Never Happened

Updated: Apr 18, 2021


-Fyre Festival was supposed to be a luxury music festival founded by Billy McFarland.


-Billy had a dream of becoming an entrepreneur when he was 22 and he dropped out of college to start a business called "Magnises".


-Over the years he managed to work with some powerful people, and one of them was Ja Rule, and then they came up with an idea to make a two-week luxury music festival in the Bahamas.


Ja Rule and Billy

-The promotion began in 2016. Fyre promised beaches, models, fancy food, and luxury villas on a private island of Pablo Escobar called Fyre Cay. V.I.P. tickets were up to $250.000.

-But...

It appeared that Fyre Cay doesn't even exist. It's a completely different island owned by George Jung (an American drug dealer), not Pablo.


- Many flights were canceled or delayed because there were too many people and there weren't enough busses, "villas", food or anything else that they promised.


- It was awfully organized. People were kept in some restaurant on the beach for hours and they couldn't ask anyone what's going on because nobody knew.

-You've been pranked

-Remember those promises of luxury villas? Pranked. Those "villas" were actually white tents which cost $700 - $12.000.

-Once there, no one knew which tent belonged to whom. So, staff tried getting everyone in line, and then they told everyone that it was free for all.

-Everyone was grumpy because it's been 5 hours and there's NO FOOD.

-It was beginning to be dark and their luggage came. It was a complete mess everyone was looking for their luggage, fighting, and many people got their luggage stolen.


-Then, all the major musical acts pulled out, and some of them didn't even confirm with them in the first place (e.g. Major Lazar).

-Since there was too many guests and not enough beds and "villas", people were stealing from each other. In the morning people were pissed and started heading back to the airport and the festival was announced CANCELED.


-On top of all of that, they had difficulties going back home and why staff locked them in the airport isn't entirely known. Yes, they were locked in a room without food overnight and one girl even fainted before reopening.

-When everyone was long gone and home, the storm on social media was ramping up.

-There were memes made and it quickly turned into a marketing study of what NOT TO DO.

-Billy and Ja Rule were sued a $100million lawsuit. Then another suit. Then 7 more.

History and finances of FYRE

-They contacted about 500 influencers and offered them V.I.P. tickets or cash for promoting the event. They even managed to get Kendall Jenner and she was paid over $200.000 for one post.

So, how did it go so wrong?

-During the planning process, the consultant told them that the festival would cost $50million and that it would require a year of organization. So they cut all the expenses.

-Remember those villas? They were going to cost 10million each so they decided that everyone will have tents.

-So, how did they have so little cash if they sold out? Because the prices were way too low. Now, I know you're wondering how is up to $250.000 low? Well actually very few people paid that price, most of them paid about $1200 and some tickets were as low as $500.


-So Billy started to take loans just to take care of all the expenses.


In the and Billy was out on $300.000 bail, his assets were frozen, he dropped expensive attorneys, he's selling his property in New York, tried to sell "Magnises" for $150.000, but it was canceled for being fraudulent, and finally FYRE went to bankruptcy.

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