Fyre Festival Fiasco

The Fyre Festival took attendees by storm, and now is making its mark in a must-see Netflix documentary.

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Natalie O'Dell

“Fyre”, Netflix’s new original documentary, shows the highs and lows of the Fyre Festival.

“The greatest party that never happened.” Netflix’s new documentary Fyre gives viewers a deeper understanding and closer look at the Fyre Festival fiasco.

Fyre on Netflix is a must watch documentary. It shows how just one person with lots of exposure can get people on board to follow almost any idea, and change lives forever.

The documentary shows the ups and downs of the millennial-targeted Fyre Festival, a luxury music festival created with the intent of promoting the Fyre music booking app.

Photo via WikiMedia Commons under Creative Commons License https://goo.gl/images/zTgU9g
The ultimate goal of the Fire Festival was to promote the company’s new booking app, Fyre.

The Fyre Festival was scheduled to take place April 28–30 and May 5–7, 2017, on the Bahamian island of Great Exuma.

The event was promoted on Instagram by “social media influencers” including socialites and models Kendall Jenner, Bella Hadid, Emily Ratajkowski, and other media personalities, many of whom did not initially disclose they had been paid to do so.

With this type of publicity, the overpriced and somewhat unrealistic event sold out in 48 hours. Tickets for the event ranged anywhere from day tickets from $500 to $1,500, to VIP packages including airfare and luxury tent accommodations for $12,000.

In the promotional video posted by social media influencers, the company also advertised the island where the party was to be held as a “private island once owned by Pablo Escobar.”

Much to the party-goers’ dismay, they were boarding their flights to arguably the biggest music festival hoax of all time.

Just weeks before the arrival of the attendees, the owner of Fyre Cay kicked the team off the island, causing them to find another location with hardly any prep time left.

During the Fyre Festival’s inaugural weekend, the event experienced problems related to security, food, accommodations and artist relations resulting in the festival being postponed indefinitely, even though thousands of people were already stuck on the island, or mid flight to the unbelievable scene.

The Netflix documentary shows the everyday person what the festival was hyped up to be, and the downfall which ultimately killed the fest, as well many people bank accounts.

Viewers of the Netflix documentary meet attendees along the way and hear their story of deception, as well as locals to the island and how their lives changed forever after Fyre made its mark on Exuma.

Although I do feel sorry for the attendees who were scammed, it’s frustrating as a viewer to watch them continue to give hundreds of dollars to the festival after they already paid thousands to attend.

The documentary also shows the power of social media and how influencers and platforms help to promote and gain revenue for almost anything.

Anyone who has an interest in music, performers, social media influencers, or just wants to see how one person can receive thousands of people, would immediately be intrigued by the documentary.

Although disastrous, the Fyre Festival was a learning experience for all. Some people may have wasted thousands of dollars, but we as viewers get to see the process of everything falling apart for free.