Fyre! Fyre!
That’s right – the Fyre Festival is coming back. The epic disaster of 2017 is getting a “continuation,” supposedly, in December of 2024.
What exactly happened in the infamous Fyre Festival of 2017?
This extravagant, multi day, music festival quickly spiraled into a full blown failure. Sparking the interest of Hulu and Netflix, the event even earned itself two documentaries. The event was intended to consist of two action packed weekends including giant music acts such as : Pusha T, Tyga, Desiigner, Blink-182, Major Lazer, Disclosure, Migos, Rae Sremmurd, Kaytranada, Lil Yachty, Matoma, Klingande, Skepta, Claptone, Le Youth, Tensnake, and Blond:ish. An immersive experience all held on a lavish private island. One student, Kiara Melwani (12), says “I remember hearing about the Fyre Festival Chaos back in 2017, I watched the documentary recently and was amazed at how everything went down.”
The event got promoted by supermodels and celebrities such as Bella Hadid, Emily Ratajkowski, Kendall Jenner, Hailey Baldwin, Elsa Hosk, Lais Ribeiro, and many more. The advertisements promised luxurious food, private beaches, deluxe bungalows, amazing musical performances, and what was to be “the biggest event of the decade.” Little did ticket buyers know that their promised extravagant experience would never come.
As the date approached the clueless ticket holders traveled to Great Exuma Island – they were sure in for a treat. “When visitors arrived at Fyre Festival, the first three planes were sent to a neighboring resort while other visitors arrived at the site to find the tents, plastic-wrapped mattresses, and kiosks left unattended with crates of alcohol left out in the sun. Chaos ensued as visitors discovered a lack of running water in addition to the shoddy accommodations, McFarland, Fyre Festival creator, stood on a makeshift stage to “answer” questions, and the infamous cheese sandwiches were served to visitors who’d paid for luxury meals” (REFINERY29).
The man responsible for this monstrosity of a music festival is Billy McFarland. McFarland was sentenced to 4 years of federal prison after tricking investors and ticket buyers out of more than $26 million. Billy recently was released from prison and took to the internet to make a big announcement – Fyre Festival II is on!
McFarland said in a video he posted explaining himself “it has been the absolute wildest journey to get here, and it really all started during a seventh-month stint in solitary confinement. I wrote out this 50-page plan of how it would take this overall interest and demand in Fyre and how it would take my ability to bring people from around the world together to make the impossible happen.” The internet could not believe the news! Allegedly 100 tickets for Fyre Festival II have already been sold, and more are set to be released soon.
Make sure to keep your eye out for what is yet to come of the next Fyre Festival!
