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It was supposed to be the party of the century.
Billy McFarland and Ja RuleThe Fyre Festival has been touted as the music festival to beat all music festivals. With its beautiful desert island scenery in the Bahamas, its range of top talent, its promotional blitz including Bella Hadid, Hailey Bieber, Emily Ratajkowski and Kendall Jenner and many other top-notch influencers, not to mention its deluxe price indicating that the participation was the Ultimate Status Sign – These two April 2017 weekends were meant to be FOMO incentive days to give Coachella a child-friendly appearance.
And then with an unappetizing tweet featuring slices of cold cheese on bread, Fyre Fest quickly became the schadenfreude of the century. The scam to put an end to all the scams. An uplifting narrative about the power of influence in the era of social media that has left thousands of dollars their hard earned money, stranded in nightmarish conditions in what was essentially an undeveloped parking lot at the time. outside of a Sandals complex, and leads to a jail sentence and plenty pursuits.
But as we learn this week with the two versions of the documentaries competing with Hulu and Netflix …Fyre Fraud and Fyre: the biggest party that has ever taken place, respectively – there was so much more to this story than we knew from the beginning. And all this is stranger and wilder than any fiction.
To understand how Fyre Fest went terribly wrong, leaving unfortunate visitors in refugee camp conditions upon their arrival and Bahamian locals deprived of the salary for a backbreaking job in the sun – and how it should have seemed so painfully obvious that this was the only possible outcome for this story – it's important to go back to McFarland's past.
The son of real estate developers with a supernatural obsession to make money – his first program to enrich it quickly, he said in his interview to Fyre Fraud, arrived at elementary school when he told a clbadmate that he could repair his pencil for a dollar, and then hacked into the pocket computers of his clbad, placing an advertisement for his services where all children would see it – McFarland claims to have founded its first business at 1 pm leaving Bucknell University to its freshman year to launch a content-sharing site called Spling. Shortly after, he started a new business, a "black card" service for New York midsummers called – "Latin for absolutely nothing," joked McFarland. New York Post in 2014, this would give members access to the benefits of the city, including access to the member-only townhouse in the West Village, while duplicating the magnetic strip of the pre-existing debit or credit card of the member on a matte black stainless steel card, for the annual membership fee of $ 250.
By 2017, the company had expanded to Washington, California and San Francisco and had close to 40,000 members, 25 employees and, according to McFarland reports, raised $ 3.1 million in venture capital, including investments from the last decade. Aubrey McClendon, co-founder of Chesapeake Energy, was indicted by a federal grand jury for conspiracy "to rig fugitive oil and natural gas leases" in March 2016 and died the next day in a single-vehicle collision .
But by 2017, the company had already moved away from its black cards in favor of a digital app focused on getting tickets for its members for the city's hottest events. Attract members with the promise of access to things like Hamilton performance and Jay Z and Beyonce Magnesis began to break promises, with members complaining that details about their purchases would be communicated to them until the day of the event, before their purchases were simply canceled. before.
According to a former employee who appears in Fyre Fraud, McFarland allegedly put these tickets up for sale before they even had in their possession, buy them and buy them the same day, using funds from sales for a future event, which would imply that each new batch of notes for sale was just offered. so that the contractor can respond to orders for the upcoming event.
Despite growing concern that McFarland's ability to deliver on his promises was clearly out of date, he continued to attract attention. Enter: Ja Rule.
When Ja, real name Jeffrey Atkins, met McFarland, he was a rapper whose popularity had decreased rapidly and who had just been released from prison for a two-year prison sentence for possession of firearms and tax evasion. In 2015, he joined Magnesis as a leader, as acknowledged by the former employee in the doc Hulu.
Despite Ja's arrival, McClendon's death began a period of unrest for Magnesis until Carola Jain, wife of hedge fund manager Bobby Jain, entered the picture and became Billy's new lead investor. Soon, Billy and Ja created a new company, Fyre Media, a talent booking service designed to help Internet users rent celebrities at their events. And the festival? It was originally intended to work as a promo for this application.
"After working on the application for three to five months, we started to think of ways to promote it," MDavid Low, The creative director of Fyre, said in the Netflix doc. "At a meeting, I actually said," Why not organize a festival, like a concert, for industry professionals? "Billy's idea is a bit hung up and then, it's dramatically transformed aside from any contribution from me or Ja in what has become the Fyre Festival."
And so, Fyre Festival was born. In April, McFarland, Ja, and Grant H. Margolin, the marketing director of the company that entered McFarland's orbit at the time of Magnesis as a customer with many ideas for improving the company, decided to set up a music festival in just about five months on Norman's Cay, an island in the Bahamas with little or no infrastructure for such an event.
"They should have created all the infrastructure," said a Bahamian journalist Ava Turnquest noted in Fyre Fraud. "We are planning a year of planning and construction."
But first, an advertisement had to be filmed. Jerry Media, the social media brand and content production with a network of internal influencers from Elliot TebelePopular Instagram account @ f – kjerry, was hired and director of photography Michael Swaigen was commissioned to film a shoot on the island. "What they told us was that this client was pretty much here to party, so we had to stay professional and get the commercial out of the shoot, even though the situation around us was chaotic ", did he declare. Fyre Fraud. "It was one of the most ridiculous and ambitious creative treatments I had seen. Models swimming with open-water sharks were on the list, this M.I.A. video clip on the track with all cars rolling on the side; we wanted to do something like that with golf carts on a runway. Soon enough, it became obvious that it was unachievable. "
And yet, the shooting took place, involving models like Bieber and Chanel Iman. The spot was published on the island and a plan was developed to allow many influencers to simultaneously post an orange sticker on their Instagram feed, all in connection with the video presenting what New Yorker writer Jia Tolentino called in Fyre Fraud "A perfectly generic fantasy of what an Instagram could become."
"It was nothing but a backdrop with easy-going happiness," she added.
And it worked.
"Within 48 hours, they sold 95% of their tickets," said Jerry Media CEO Mick Purzycki claimed in the Netflix document (produced by Jerry Media). "I think people thought it was one of the new hot things that were beginning to grab the US and global market."
And then things became real.
"People would tell me things like," I left my job because my boss did not give me any free time. "" I've sold everything I own. "Just listing these actions crazy that they have just started to go to this fantastic island festival, "former Jerry Media employee Oren Aks noted in Fyre Fraud. "But nothing has been built."
Suddenly, McFarland realized that, just four months from the end, they had to get to work. "Billy started to panic" Delroy Jackson, McFarland's local fixer in the Bahamas, said in Hulu's doc. He said, "Listen, people are buying right now. So we have to organize a festival. "
First of all, they had to find a new island. It appears that despite claims that he would have paid more than $ 10 million to own Norman's Cay, the true owner of the island was not satisfied with the boasting in the promo that Once upon a time Pablo EscobarIt has been formally forbidden for the island of his family to take on a connotation because of the obvious bad reputation that the so-called drug pillar and his killer have given him – and expelled them from the island forever.
"After six or eight weeks, he had to find a new location on a neighboring island and then start from scratch," said the event's producer. Andy King explained in Fyre. And all these luxury homes already sold, luxury tents and villas? They did not exist on Grand Exuma, the new site.
"The site was on a hill and at the base, what I saw was rather a housing construction site that was dangerous in many ways," Luca Sabatini, who was involved in scenic and technical production and was contacted only 45 days from the event, explained. "And it took a lot of work."
While planning was randomly done on the island, people elsewhere were starting to wonder exactly what was going on with this festival. There was no update on the site's appearance (as there was none yet), with Jerry Media continuing to post the same images as those used during the promotional shoot. If questions were asked or criticisms made on social media, they were removed. "The decision was to capture all the legitimate issues and pbad them on to the Fyre team, then remove any negative comments that degraded the brand," Purzycki says in " Fyre.
Soon, a Twitter account called FyreFestivalFraud, managed by NYC venture capitalist Calvin Wells, appeared after Wells, aware of McFarland's Magnesis projects, began to examine the validity of promotional material. After contacting the agents of some of the gangs on the list – Blink-182, Disclosure, Major Lazer, among others – and learned that no one had yet been paid, he took a "more active role in all researches, "he said in Fyre. "What I understood was that they had rented an area north of Sandals Resort and then Photoshopped it down the map to give the impression that they were on a desert island, "he added. "I thought the world had to know what was going on."
When the Twitter account did not have much impact, he warned Comcast Ventures that their $ 90,000,000 valuation of Fyre Media may not be entirely true and advised them not to invest before the festival. And then, the McFarland mob for new investors started. But first, a major purchase was made.
"And then, they order for two million dollars of alcohol," Jackson said. "But who did he order for $ 2 million worth of alcohol? Do you know the customs duties on alcohol in the Bahamas? 45% of the two million." They now owed $ 900,000 in taxes.
After taking out a loan from a named individual Ezra Birnbaum For $ 3 million, with a maximum interest rate of 120% and a $ 500,000 payment required in 16 days, McFarland turned to people who had already spent thousands of dollars in notes festival to bail it out. Participants began to receive emails explaining that the festival was without money and that they could only make purchases using a bracelet on which they would need to pre-load funds, recommending them to shell out Thousands of dollars for all the experiences that they would not want to miss. out on. And when these emails went unnoticed, aggressive phone calls began.
"The urgency was not:" Let's make this experience a cashless experience for our festival-goers. "It was" We can not start the festival because we have no money "", former Fyre product designer Shiyuan Deng claimed in Fyre.
"It was a huge amount." The first group of kids had charged $ 800,000 on these bracelets, "added King.
As it became increasingly clear that there was no money to pay for all the charges that had been committed, McFarland began committing real criminal acts, promising wire transfers to sellers, only to send screenshots to a confirmation page with the tracking number cut off, without any wiring money. While nothing was really built and as the day of arrivals got closer and closer, McFarland was repeatedly told that he had to cancel the event, that the press would be worse off. 39 he was simply going through what was sure to be a disaster. The only problem? Cancellation was not an option, as all investors were told that in such a case their investments would still be recovered. And yet, McFarland had no insurance policy on the event to turn to. He had no choice but to persevere.
And then the inevitable happened. After a night of monsoon-like rain the night before, almost all the work had been done and Blink-182 became the first act to withdraw from the festival, the first group of participants began to arrive. Some were taken to an off-site location, the Exuma Point restaurant (which only had 25 minutes to prepare), where they were held for six hours and get drunk enough. "Quite frankly, it was probably the best part of any experience," said Purzycki, who had just arrived himself. The latest arrivals were driven directly to the site, where they discovered that they had been really fooled. The gravel pits were filled with sand, there is no direct access to a beach, no food, no water, no electricity, and the luxury tents are actually remains of emergency tents at affected by Hurricane Matthew. almost enough of them. But there was a lot of alcohol, stacked in pallets next to the kiosks marked "Bar".
Despite attempts to bring everyone together in an organized fashion, McFarland then made the decision to hop on a table and tell the crowd that if they had a villa reservation, they should go get a tent. What they did. All at once. A total pandemonium erupted and, as night fell, it turned into a sort of plundering situation involving very drunk people who had been promised something else.
By the time the whole world saw the famous "cheese and bread" tweet, the media was all over the ice and the remaining acts of the program were canceled by a Fyre Media employee. Samuel Krostwho was responsible for their booking. The Bahamians in the area were livid and now demanding their payment and coming out. Meanwhile, unlucky participants were only trying to get out of the deal. Regarding McFarland, "Billy can not be found", consultant of the music festival Marc Weinstein it's noted. The official response, written by Margolin, stated that the event had been canceled due to circumstances "beyond our control". Ja was tweeting saying that the event "was not a scam …[and] it's not my fault. "
Even before the end of the weekend, McFarland, Ja and the rest of Fyre Media have been victims of several lawsuits and yet, according to images of a conference call between the men and their employees held that very Monday, they had always feel like they could manage to get out of the mess they'd created, by showing Samsung and their Galaxy phones exploding, as an example of a business facing a storm .
When an employee asked if what they had done with the festival was actually a fraud, Ja replied, "This is not a fraud. I would call it advertising." false. "
Two weeks later, McFarland invited Swaigen to his apartment to present a recovery documentary. "He lived in this luxurious apartment, isolated from many layers of glbad, and he wanted to go to the Bahamas to try to recover money for investors," said the filmmaker. On the alleged ball list of things to do? Customs Robs to recover their seized goods. "As we are about to land, the entire government is rocking and making a statement banning Billy and the Fyre Festival from staying for all eternity."
Around this time, the FBI began to sniffle, addressing Fyre Media employees who had been told that there would be no more formal employment or payroll, but that he did not dismiss anyone, which effectively guaranteed that he would not pay unemployment benefits. (Unemployment is only available if you are fired, not if you leave "voluntarily".) And on June 30, 2017, he is arrested and charged with electronic fraud, pleading guilty to two counts of indictment and Admitting the use of fake documents to attract investors in March 2018.
And you would think it's there that this strange saga has ended, is not it? Not enough.
As revealed in FyreWhile he was on bail, McFarland returned to work. He invited videographer Kind of to start documenting his life in his apartment. "We talked about my experiences in the justice system and I will never forget what he said," said Kindo. "He looked me dead in the eye and said," I will not go to jail. "It was as if this man knew something that I did not know or that he was certainly crazy." In the play with them in some of the pictures is "a guy named Angelo", which would turn out to be Angelo Roefaro, Sen.'s press officer. Chuck Schumer.
At the same time, people who had "attended" the Fyre Festival have all started noticing the solicited emails from a man named Frank Tribble Jr. Tribble wrote on behalf of NYC VIP Access, offering tickets for sale for exclusive events like the 2018 Masters, the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, the Met Gala and the Grammys – not all events. offering no tickets on sale to the general public. . And right there in the Kindo sequence? You guessed it. Tribble.
"The first time I met Frank Tribble, it was at the hotel," said Kindo. "I had never seen him before … What's stranger, it's that he was wearing a Magnesis cap … a Fyre pullover."
McFarland had recruited Tribble to be the face of the new company, while – and all that was filmed in camera – he wrote the scripts for emails and phone calls. And according to the FBI, 15 people gave them more than $ 100,000 for tickets. "It's hard for me to say if these guys did not know what was going on, but I also know that Billy is really good at keeping a lower and higher level of information," said Kindo.
After a VICE (which also produced FyreThe story documenting McFarland's new scheme was released, he was arrested again on June 12 and faces the addition of a third scam and money laundering charge.
"William McFarland, already waiting for a conviction for an anti-fraud scheme, would have continued to carry out his criminal activities as usual," said the US attorney. Geoffrey Berman said in a statement at the time, according to the New York Times. And on October 11, 2018, he was officially sentenced to six years of imprisonment in a federal prison, accepting a lifetime ban from performing the duties of officer or trustee and leaving 26,191,306, $ 28 forfeiture.
Bahamian workers remain unpaid and owner of Exuma Point restaurant Maryann Rolle $ 50,000 from his own savings to pay his employees. Low, who has re-teamed with Ja, who is still cited as a defendant in many lawsuits, on ICONN – an attempt to re-brand the Fyre app, is being sued by American Express for $ 250k as a result charges according to McFarland told him would be refunded. And Margolin, who has neither admitted nor refuted any of the SEC's charges, has accepted a seven-year CEO's ban similar to that of McFarland and a fine of $ 35,000.
Among the many famous faces that had been enlisted to promote the event on their Instagram accounts, many have since deleted their posts, which, in turn, prompted the Federal Trade Commission to crack down on disguised sponsored content. (Of all the people involved, Ratajkowski would have been the only one to use the hashtag #ad.) And Hadid was the only one to have acknowledged and apologized for his role in promoting the event by tweeting, "" I I feel so sorry and hurt because it's something I could not bear, although of course if I had known the result, you would know it too. "
"I think it's very easy to play the fourth Monday morning for myself, looking back, saying: I should have done that, I should have done it." it." And I have certainly made a lot of mistakes, no question. But before we had the worst chance, I think we had the best chance, "said McFarland at the top of Fyre Fraud. "It sounds crazy, but so much had to be done to make such a failure, everyone was convinced that we were going to organize an event that would change the landscape and provide an experience that people would talk about for years."
Ironically, he was absolutely right.
Fyre Fraud is now available to broadcast on Hulu, while Fyre: the biggest party that has ever taken place waiting for you on Netflix.
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