It’s easy for just about any crazy thing nowadays to go viral rapidly. Whether it’s a wild news story, rumor or just a weird meme about Shaggy Rogers’ hidden powers, it shouldn’t have been surprising to how hustler Billy McFarland’s Fyre Festival was able to generate so much buzz and interest.
Based on the music booking app Fyre that was managed by McFarland, ads with slick orange graphics, Bella Hadid and other models sunbathing in the Bahamas were spread across the internet for months before the Spring 2017 event.
Gleefully partying with said models alongside his friend, rapper Ja Rule, the overzealous McFarland brags of the Normans Cay island’s connections to Pablo Escobar’s cartel in the past, promising an event that would allow visitors to briefly live as decadently as the infamous drug lord. It’s an idea that’s impossible to fail, right?
Well, director Chris Smith’s film, Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened is a detailed chronicle of how the impossible became possible. At first, Fyre seems like the hottest trending event that attracted Instagram posts from the likes of influencers like Kendall Jenner and promised a top-tier musical extravaganza in tropical luxury along the lines of Coachella.
Interviews with the organizers of the festival go into detail into how it gradually de-evolved into an over-budget, sloppily produced and cheaply funded catastrophe that left its unfortunate attendees stranded in a rain-soaked camp with tents from FEMA, irate and missing their luggage.
Something is clearly amiss when McFarland mentions to an associate about how he does not plan on using a crew ship in lieu of getting every single attendee on the island, and the expression on the associate’s face is very telling. They’re forced to move the festival to Great Exuma, with the added misfortune of booking it on Exuma’s busiest and most populated weekend.
The local residents were recruited to help with stage construction and setting up the area, with most of everything unfinished once the first few guests begin to arrive. Rumors of just how exactly poorly planned the event was were already abuzz online, but ticket buyers were soon on their way. “Fyre Festival, here we go baby!”, the excited guests exclaim as they board their plane.
But that excitement turns to literal screams of horror when they first see the camp. “Turn this bus around!”, says one horrified woman. Arrivals look around confused, wondering when the first few shows are starting. Unfortunately, just about all the booked names for Fyre, including Major Lazer, Migos and Blink 182, eventually pulled out once their management teams discovered the fledging company’s lack of infrastructure.
Those who could afford the steal of $1500 starting ticket prices were left searching for their belongings and scuffling with other guests as the camp becomes a free-for-all. There’s not much in the way of true gourmet catering as was promised in the ads, aside from some bland cheese sandwiches that were Tweeted by irate attendees across the web, exposing just how much the crew’s plans had gone awry.
When the Fyre fiasco occurred, there was an undercurrent in much of the online where people were laughing at rich kids getting egg on their faces. But as much as Chris Smith’s documentary is an indictment of Billy McFarland’s frequent conning and swindling people out of their money, it also evokes sympathy for those caught up into his lying. Not just for the fooled investors, but especially the stranded festival-goers desperately looking for flights home at the airport, and Bahamians working without any sort of pay.
This movie paints a portrait of someone so desperate to integrate himself into the upper class that he was willing to negatively impact the lives of any innocent person around him to achieve his goal. There is one memorable scene where the Fyre organizers sit in a dark office, contemplating how all their plans collapsed. Even with Ja Rule trying to lift the group’s spirits over the phone and putting as much of a hopeful spin as he can, it still feels like the gloomiest room on Earth at that moment.
Needless to say, this is a film that will make you laugh, albeit uncomfortably, at points- especially during one scene where co-organizer Andy King tells an interesting story about getting water for the hot and thirsty guests- but also angry at the sheer callousness of the entire affair (one story about a woman losing her savings is especially upsetting). Even with a note about McFarland serving a six-year prison sentence, you’ll be left wondering: has he truly learned his lesson?
Ultimately, Netflix’s Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened is a fascinating cautionary tale about trusting anyone to fulfill your fantasies without knowing whether they can deliver, and a documentation of an interesting train wreck that has a lot to say about class, ambition, and the effects of today’s social media climate on our culture. Easily recommended, and if you’d had the change to stream it, let us know your opinion at @Official_FAN on Twitter!