Fyre Festival: in the biggest flop of festivals in the world

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Netflix

Fyre Festival was the most talked about festival experience in 2017, but not because everyone was having fun there.

Announced by personalities such as Kendall Jenner, Bella Hadid and Hailey Baldwin, it has been touted as a glamorous evening on a deserted island.

Tickets cost up to $ 100,000 (£ 75,000) and guests who book are promised luxury accommodations and 'the best of food, arts, music and adventure' in the Bahamas.

Instead, they found mattresses on rain-soaked floors, slices of cheese on bread and their luggage thrown into an unlit parking lot.

Fyre Festival is now the subject of two new documentaries, one of which will be screened on Netflix on Friday.

Seth Crossno, a blogger and podcaster, and his three friends spent $ 45,000 (£ 34,785) on tickets, travel and luxury accommodations to get there.

But when they arrived, they found that it was still practically a construction site.

"There were always workers, vans and 18-wheelers," he told Radio 1 Newsbeat.

"I tweeted a photo of a planning notebook that we found on the floor and it's hysterical.

"There is a list of things that the organizers wanted to order, including 6,000 Skittles candies and 9,000 bright lollipops, and did anybody think of planning the festival?"

Seth, who blogs under the name of William Needham Finley IV, shared his live experience on Twitter and his videos have been viewed millions of times.

The Netflix documentary, Fyre, the biggest party ever to take place, is devoted to the disastrous preparation of this event, organized by businessman Billy McFarland.

A rival documentary was released earlier this week on the American Hulu streaming service.

While Fyre was touted as an exclusive party for rich Instagram influencers, Seth said there were more ordinary people at the event than famous Insta models.

"Everyone who looked at us badumed that everyone was presumed to be a rich influencer, who had flown away and was expecting this luxury life, but was slapped by reality," says Seth.

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Netflix

"Some people I had talked to had spent $ 500 (£ 386) for their tickets and it was their spring break from college." They thought it just sounded like a cool trip.

"Looking on Twitter, you think all of these influencers have a glimpse of the real world here.

"I think it's just human nature to see people who are in this situation and laughing or taking pleasure in seeing someone get kidnapped."

"But history counts so much more than rich kids from Instagram meet Lord of the Flies."

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While the chaos of the festival was mainly reported on Twitter, the Netflix documentary focuses on what was happening behind the scenes of Great Exuma Island in the Bahamas.

"The organizers have had six to eight weeks to achieve something that should have taken close to a year," said Chris Smith, who directed the documentary.

"But what was most surprising to me was going to the Bahamas and seeing the after-effects of what was left and the consequences for the people there."

The Fyre Festival was not just a miserable experience for people who paid to party, it also had a major impact on the islanders who helped the organizers build the festival.

"They had engaged so many members of the local community to try to solve this problem, and hundreds of day laborers were working," says Chris.

"Fyre had such a profile that I think no one would have thought it would not work."

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Netflix

A restaurant owner in the documentary admits that she has accumulated $ 50,000 (£ 38,500) of her savings to save the life of the Fyre Festival in anticipation of the event.

"She put a huge chunk of her savings on trying to meet the obligations she had imposed on them," says Chris.

"In the end, when things collapsed, everyone just left, she had to deal with that.

"No one came back to deal with this and these people left and came back to live in New York and did not admit responsibility for their actions."

Organizer Billy McFarland has not paid the island workers for their time or their resources.

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Netflix

He is the only man missing in the documentary – Chris says he refused to be interviewed unless he was paid for his time.

"We did not feel comfortable with the benefit he could have drawn after so many people were injured for what he had done," he added.

After the fall of Fyre, Billy was convicted of fraud and sentenced to six years in prison last March.

Rapper Ja Rule was originally described as a co-organizer of the event – but was not arrested or charged in connection with the fraud. His lawyers argued that McFarland had used his name and his relationships to promote the event.

"Six years do not seem to match what he's done and the impact he's had on everyone," Seth said.

He has successfully sued Billy for $ 2.5 million, but he hopes to wait until 20 years before recovering his money, the fraudster having to repay $ 27 million to investors before settling other debts .

"I am not able to say that he should spend 20 years in prison, but six years do not seem much.

"I do not think we heard Billy's last word – at all."

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Netflix

Seth hopes the money goes first to the people of Great Exuma and thinks that the attention of the new documentaries could be what would help them get the refund.

"Let's hope that we can ensure that the people of the Bahamas are also reimbursed," he added.

"With people like Netflix involved and these influencers, there is no reason why money can not be brought together to make it just for these people."

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